A recent story in USA Today outlines the decline in the number of doctors practicing family medicine. Apparently medical students and doctors think specializing will bring more money and perhaps more prestige than entering primary care. The American Academy of Family Physicians reports that the percentage of medical school graduates selecting primary care has declined about 52 percent since 1997. This in turn means our nation may have a shortage of some 40,000 primary care physicians by 2020.

Aja Gerrity, a sweet, kind, smart, funny, talented, seventeen year old girl died yesterday in a car accident.  Aja was a client of mine.  She was headed to NY to go to college for her love of music and performing arts.

Aja was driving the car and three other people in Aja’s car died.  All were recent graduates of Ridgefield High.  I did not know the other kids but if they were friends of Aja they must have been terrific kids.   Amand Williams, 18, of Ridgefield, Jason Cary Carter, 18, of Vancouver, and Richard Michael Araiza, 18, also died.  Dustin Evan Leitzell, 18, from Ridgefield, was transported by LifeFlight to Legacy Emanuel Hospital in critical condition.

I want to share an interesting op-ed piece by law school professor Tom Baker that appeared in the New York Times on July 12, 2009. Baker also wrote the book The Medical Malpractice Myth. In the article Baker argues that while our health care system does need reform, limiting medical liability is not the answer. He believes that medical liability forces health care providers to be more responsible in their treatment of patients.

Critics often argue that medical malpractice lawsuits cause health care costs to rise. Baker counters that health care costs aren’t going up because of large lawsuit claims: “Preventable medical injuries, not patient compensation, are what ring up extra costs for additional treatment.”

One of the best things about making chocolate chip cookies has got to be taking bites of the raw cookie dough. Unfortunately, if you recently bought Nestle’s Toll House cookie or brownie dough and sampled the raw dough, you may have gotten sick, as some of the dough was found to be tainted with the E. coli bacteria. According to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), about 70 people in 29 states have fallen ill after nibbling on the dough.

It seems if anyone complains about doctors making too much money, doctors counter by pointing out such things as getting under-reimbursed by insurance companies or the high medical malpractice insurance rates they are forced to pay. Well, looks like doctors are going to have to take the malpractice insurance rate issue off the table, because rates have declined steadily since 2005. Continental Casualty Company (CNA) and Northwest Physicians Insurance Company (NPIC), the two biggest medical malpractice insurers in the state, have experienced an average decrease since 2005 of 18 percent.

Pain pumps used to control pain in patients after shoulder surgery are causing significant problems in patients.  Our firm is reviewing and handling shoulder pain pump cases in Oregon.  Studies have identified intra-articular pain pumps as a likely cause of severe cartilage damage and shoulder joint pain and severe cartilage damage. In the shoulder, this condition is known as chrondrolysis (Postarthroscopic Glenohumeral Chrondrolysis (PAGCL)). Chrondrolyis is a devastating condition that causes severe pain and the need for constant medication and may ultimately require shoulder joint replacement surgery.

If you have a shoulder injury in Oregon or another state you should consider seeking advice of a lawyer.

Jane Paulson took depositions last week in a trucking case.  The case is in Oregon but not filed in Portland, Oregon.  Our attorneys handle serious auto accident or car accident cases all over Oregon, not just in Portland, and in Washington.  In addition, we handle trucking accident cases all over Oregon and Washington.

Trucking accident cases we handle include loading errors and unloading errors and basic driving errors causing serious injury.

Jane Paulson settled a lingual nerve injury case this month.  The client’s lingual nerve was injured during an extraction of her wisdom teeth.  Injury to the lingual nerve should not occur during wisdom tooth extraction when the procedure is performed properly.  No one expects to have a numb tongue from having his/her wisdom teeth extracted.  In our opinion, it is an avoidable risk of the procedure.

Jane has represented and continues to represent clients who are injured during wisdom tooth extraction in Oregon and Washington.

Happy May Day!

Many children drop flowers on their neighbor’s doorsteps on May Day.  Parents usually go with or watch their children to keep them safe.  As parents we often forget dangers may be in our own homes.  We bring toys into the home assuming they must be safe because the toys are on the market.  Unfortunately, that is not the case.  Many toys are on the market that are unsafe and have not been tested.

Some toy facts:

1. A child dies every month from a toy caused injury…….38 in last two years
   Consumer Product Safety Commission

News about the possibility of a pandemic flu has thrown many people into a panic. The swine flu outbreak has already killed more than 150 people in Mexico, and more and more cases are being diagnosed each day. The World Health Organization raised the influenza pandemic alert level to phase 4, indicating human-to-human transmission of the virus. Phase 5 indicates the beginning of the pandemic phase and widespread human infection. As of 11am Eastern Time, there were 64 confirmed cases of the swine flu in the United States: 10 in California, 45 in New York City, 6 in Texas, 2 in Kansas, and 1 in Ohio. When I first heard that schools in Mexico were closed, I thought they must mean that schools in particular regions or cities were closed, but no, schools in the entire country are closed. That is how serious this flu could be.