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Birth injuries such as cerebral palsy are a life-long condition. So many adults who were born with cerebral palsy must cope with it as they live their lives, maintain families, and work full-time.

With the U.S. Labor Department celebrating October as National Disability Employment Awareness Month, we thought it would be appropriate to take a moment to honor cerebral palsy patients who contribute so much to the workforce.

Cerebral palsy is a term used for a group of conditions that are caused by injuries or abnormalities of the brain and nervous system that most often occur while the baby is still in the womb. Many times, cerebral palsy can develop due to medical negligence.

Severe cases of cerebral palsy often require regular medical assistance and can significantly hamper one’s ability to move. However, other cases may be much more manageable and allow the individual to live a mostly independent and self-sufficient life, which may include pursuing a full-time career.

National Disability Employment Awareness Month was created to help appreciate the work that disabled individuals do in the workplace every day that may otherwise go unnoticed, said Kathy Martinez, the assistant secretary of labor for disability employment policy.

“Return on investment means hiring the right talent,” said Martinez. “Workers with disabilities represent all skill sets and are ready to get the job done. This year’s theme focuses on improving employment opportunities that lead to good jobs and a secure economic future for people with disabilities and the nation as a whole.”

National Disability Employment Awareness Month also attempts to instill ideas of creating a welcoming and inclusive workplace for people with disabilities so they can gain dignity, respect and self-determination through their profession.

The history of National Disability Employment Awareness Month dates back to 1945, when Congress enacted a law declaring the first week in October each year “National Employ the Physically Handicapped Week.” By 1988, Congress expanded it to the full month of October and adjusted the name accordingly. The U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy has handled awareness responsibilities for the month since 2001.

If you or a loved one have a child who suffered a birth injury and now suffers from a form of cerebral palsy that may have been caused bymedical malpractice or negligence, it may be worth considering a birth injury lawsuit. Speak to a birth injury lawyer at Sokolove Law today to learn more about the legal options that may be open to you.

Cerebral Palsy

We hear a lot about how mesothelioma and other asbestos-related diseases are caused by “microscopic” asbestos fibers. Easily inhaled, these tiny spear-like fibers of death become embedded into the delicate linings of the lung where, over time they can lead to scarring and eventually, mesothelioma cancer.

But how small is small?

This old advertisement from the infamous asbestos leader Johns-Manville shows how impossibly small asbestos fibers are: over 1500 of them bundled together are smaller than a human hair.

What is perhaps more astonishing then the relative size of asbestos fibers is the fact that their size was once a selling point for the global asbestos industry.

Asbestos

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is getting involved in an unfortunate case of potential discrimination against a mother with a child suffering from cerebral palsy.

HUD officials announced this week that they have charged the landlords of an Iowa apartment building with violating the Fair Housing Act after refusing to properly accommodate the family, which has a seven-year-old daughter who suffered the childbirth injury.

As part of her treatment, the girl had previously received a Labrador retriever as a medically-prescribed emotional support animal. However, when the mother and daughter moved into an apartment owned by John and Nancy Meany, the landlords refused to modify a “no pets policy” for the apartment.

Despite the mother’s ability to provide documentation of the need for the dog to live with her daughter from her pediatrician and therapist, the landlords still refused to allow the dog unless they received a $200 deposit and a $25 monthly rent increase.

The mother and daughter felt the need to move, and eventually did so to another apartment that cost more and was farther away from the daughter’s school.

“Threatening parents with eviction for requesting an emotional support animal for a child with disabilities or charging more for having one is against the law,” said John Trasviña, the HUD assistant secretary for fair housing and equal opportunity. “HUD is committed to ensuring that landlords comply with fair housing laws and provide the accommodations that may be necessary for tenants with disabilities to have the same opportunities to enjoy their homes.”

According to the HUD’s Fair Housing Act, it is “unlawful for landlords to refuse a reasonable accommodation in their rules, policies, practices, or services when needed to provide persons with disabilities an equal opportunity to use or enjoy a dwelling.” Landlords are also not allowed to “impose different rules and restrictions” under such circumstances.

While this is a very unfortunate and sad situation, hopefully the HUD’s intervention will help this family get the help they need. Regardless, this situation shows the difficulties – and expenses – that come with caring for a child with a birth injury. If you would like to pursue a cerebral palsy lawsuit against the doctors who caused your child’s birth injury, contact a birth injury attorney at Sokolove Law today.

Cerebral Palsy

As the nation prepares to reflect upon the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, a new report suggests a link between exposure to toxic chemicals released after New York’s World Trade Centercollapsed and the development of cancer in firefighters who toiled at ground zero.

The study, released in the British medical journal The Lancet, found that 9/11 firefighters are 19 percent more likely to develop cancer than those who were not at the Trade Center wreckage, according toThe New York Times.

Study leader Dr. David J. Prezant said the findings indicate an “increased likelihood for the development of any type of cancer” but noted that they were far from conclusive.

Toxic substances found at the site of the 9/11 attacks, such asasbestos and jet fuel, can trigger diseases that may take decades to develop, such as mesothelioma.

A portion of New York City was covered by a cloud of fine powder after the towers fell. A study released after the terrorist attacks by the Virginia firm HP Environmental reported that the powder creating this toxic cloud contained asbestos. In fact, the asbestos particles were so pulverized in the explosion that most were smaller than what could be detected by the EPA’s standard testing method. After adjusting the test to check smaller fiber concentrations, the study concluded that there was an “overwhelming concentration” of the ultrafine asbestos particles.

The 9/11 first responders, including firefighters, police, and other emergency personnel, “were exposed to a whole soup of carcinogens,” said Dr. Philip J. Landrigan of. Dr. Landrigan is the director of environmental and occupational medicine at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in Manhattan and a leading expert on asbestos toxicity. He is also the principal investigator of a related report published in The Lancet on the health effects of the attacks on recovery and rescue workers.

However, Dr. James Melius, administrator of the New York StateLaborers’ Health and Safety Trust Fund and a peer reviewer of the firefighter study, warned that it “would probably not be enough to persuade federal officials to include cancer as one of the diseases covered under the Zadroga Act.”

The James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2010 (H.R. 847) was called into law by President Obama in 2010 and it statesthat those who have 9/11 related health conditions may be eligible for health care under this law.

If you were diagnosed with mesothelioma and suspect you wereexposed to asbestos at ground zero, you may be entitled to financial compensation. To learn more about your legal options regarding a possible mesothelioma settlement, please contact an asbestoslawyer.

Asbestos

The International Mesothelioma Program at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston continue to make progress in malignant mesothelioma research. The scientists and doctors involved with the project are looking for information that will lead to better adjuvant therapies for the rare and deadly disease. Adjuvant therapies are treatments given to help boost the effectiveness of other treatments. In the case of malignant mesothelioma, the term “adjuvant therapies” typically refers to treatments that are administered to patients after they have had tumors surgically removed.

In a recent study, scientists used mice to test potential adjuvant therapies. Human mesothelioma cells were introduced into the test mice, allowed to metastasize (to grow), then surgically removed. This procedure turned the mice into workable test subjects for testing ne mesothelioma adjuvant therapies.

One of the therapies researchers studied on the mice was “intracavitary chemotherapy,” which means applying the chemotherapy drug, paclitaxel, into the cavity of the body around the site where the tumor has been removed just prior to closing the incision. The results of this test on the test mice were encouraging.

In a report published in the Annals of Thoracic Surgery, “Paclitaxel-laded Expansile Nanoparticles in a Multimodal Treatment, Model of Malignant Mesothelioma,” the researchers state: “Treatment with [paclitaxel] improved overall survival in the setting of [the surgery], suggesting that [it] merits further evaluation for intracavitary drug delivery following the surgical resection of malignant mesothelioma.” What this means is that this particular adjuvant therapy may be successful in the survival of mesothelioma patients.

Advancements such as these are very important to patients of malignant mesothelioma, as the cancer is serious and fatal.

For those who have been diagnosed with mesothelioma cancer that can be linked toasbestos exposure caused by a product or former employer, you may be entitled to financial compensation. Contact an experienced mesothelioma attorney to learn more about your rights, and to see if pursuing a mesothelioma settlement is in your best interest.

Mesothelioma

The International Mesothelioma Program at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston continue to make progress in malignant mesothelioma research. The scientists and doctors involved with the project are looking for information that will lead to better adjuvant therapies for the rare and deadly disease. Adjuvant therapies are treatments given to help boost the effectiveness of other treatments. In the case of malignant mesothelioma, the term “adjuvant therapies” typically refers to treatments that are administered to patients after they have had tumors surgically removed.

In a recent study, scientists used mice to test potential adjuvant therapies. Human mesothelioma cells were introduced into the test mice, allowed to metastasize (to grow), then surgically removed. This procedure turned the mice into workable test subjects for testing ne mesothelioma adjuvant therapies.

One of the therapies researchers studied on the mice was “intracavitary chemotherapy,” which means applying the chemotherapy drug, paclitaxel, into the cavity of the body around the site where the tumor has been removed just prior to closing the incision. The results of this test on the test mice were encouraging.

In a report published in the Annals of Thoracic Surgery, “Paclitaxel-laded Expansile Nanoparticles in a Multimodal Treatment, Model of Malignant Mesothelioma,” the researchers state: “Treatment with [paclitaxel] improved overall survival in the setting of [the surgery], suggesting that [it] merits further evaluation for intracavitary drug delivery following the surgical resection of malignant mesothelioma.” What this means is that this particular adjuvant therapy may be successful in the survival of mesothelioma patients.

Advancements such as these are very important to patients of malignant mesothelioma, as the cancer is serious and fatal.

For those who have been diagnosed with mesothelioma cancer that can be linked to asbestos exposure caused by a product or former employer, you may be entitled to financial compensation. Contact an experiencedmesothelioma attorney to learn more about your rights, and to see if pursuing a mesothelioma settlement is in your best interest.

Mesothelioma

The International Mesothelioma Program at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston continue to make progress in malignant mesothelioma research. The scientists and doctors involved with the project are looking for information that will lead to better adjuvant therapies for the rare and deadly disease. Adjuvant therapies are treatments given to help boost the effectiveness of other treatments. In the case of malignant mesothelioma, the term “adjuvant therapies” typically refers to treatments that are administered to patients after they have had tumors surgically removed.

In a recent study, scientists used mice to test potential adjuvant therapies. Human mesothelioma cells were introduced into the test mice, allowed to metastasize (to grow), then surgically removed. This procedure turned the mice into workable test subjects for testing ne mesothelioma adjuvant therapies.

Call us at 888-360-4215 to speak with a mesothelioma paralegal

One of the therapies researchers studied on the mice was “intracavitary chemotherapy,” which means applying the chemotherapy drug, paclitaxel, into the cavity of the body around the site where the tumor has been removed just prior to closing the incision. The results of this test on the test mice were encouraging.

In a report published in the Annals of Thoracic Surgery, “Paclitaxel-laded Expansile Nanoparticles in a Multimodal Treatment, Model of Malignant Mesothelioma,” the researchers state: “Treatment with [paclitaxel] improved overall survival in the setting of [the surgery], suggesting that [it] merits further evaluation for intracavitary drug delivery following the surgical resection of malignant mesothelioma.” What this means is that this particular adjuvant therapy may be successful in the survival of mesothelioma patients.

Advancements such as these are very important to patients of malignant mesothelioma, as the cancer is serious and fatal.

For those who have been diagnosed with mesothelioma cancer that can be linked to asbestos exposure caused by a product or former employer, you may be entitled to financial compensation. Contact an experienced mesothelioma attorney to learn more about your rights, and to see if pursuing a mesothelioma settlement is in your best interest.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21963198

Mesothelioma

A doctor from Iowa has been found to by a jury to have improperly delivered a child that suffered birth injuries as a result, and he will now have to pay more than $1 million in damages as a result.

According to the Waterloo-based WCF Courier, a Black Hawk County jury ruled in favor of Alan and Larysa Asher, a Cedar Falls couple who had a child in November 2006 who was born with permanent injuries to the brachial plexus in her left arm, causing permanent damage.

The Ashers alleged that Dr. Anthony Onuigbo of OB-GYN Specialists – the doctor that delivered their daughter – did not properly realize that her shoulder had become stuck during the birthing process. After using “excessive traction” to remove the child, the injuries to her left arm were first noticed.

During the birth injury trial that followed, the Ashers’ lawyers argued (successfully) that Onuigbo should have properly noticed that the child’s arm was stuck and either tried to dislodge it before proceeding or perform a C-section.

Following the ruling in the Ashers’ favor, the family was awarded $1.37 million; including $63,000 for each parent for “loss of childhood consortium,” $550,000 for loss of future earnings, $380,000 for loss of the child’s full mind and body, and $258,000 for pain and suffering.

If the family of you or a loved one have a child with some type of birth injury that was caused by medical negligence, there may be legal action worth pursuing. Contact a birth injury attorney at Sokolove Law today to see what your legal options may be, and if a birth injury lawsuit may be a possibility.

Birth Injury

For the first time in 130 years, Canada’s asbestos mines are quiet. Finally.

The country has announced that production was halted at the Lac d’amiante du Canada operation in Thetford Mines, Quebec, following the closure of the Jeffrey Mine in Asbestos, Quebec, earlier this year. Financial and environmental issues were cited in the closure of each.

Once considered Canada’s Gold, asbestos has tarnished Canada’s legacy since some political leaders aggressively protect the deadly substance and support the industry’s expansion. To this day, Canada continues to be one of the world’s largest exporters of asbestos — even though it is universally considered a health hazard, a cancer-causing agent, and no longer used within the country itself.

It’s a hot-button issue, with all of Canada’s political parties except the Conservativespushing for a ban.

The Toronto Sun recently reported the appeals to government of an Ontario womanwho lost both of her parents to asbestos-related disease:

Heidi Von Palleske — a self-proclaimed “asbestos orphan” — wants to convince the Conservative government to ban the exportation and mining of asbestos. “Four days before [mom] died, I recorded a plea where she asked that the exportation of asbestos to Third World countries stop because nobody — nobody — should die the way she was dying,” said Von Palleske.

The Cobourg, Ont., resident said her father worked in an asbestos mine and her mother developed a rare illness because she inhaled asbestos fibres from his clothing.

Von Palleske’s 11-year-old daughter also had harsh words for the Canadian government:

“I can’t believe it,” said Cavanagh Matmor. “They don’t know how it feels to have a grandmother and grandfather die of asbestos. But they don’t listen to others… It breaks my heart knowing that they’re going to continue doing that.”

Canada introduced the western world to asbestos, according to this excellent magazine article from The Globe & Mail, Canada’s Chronic Asbestos Problem:

Defensive about his town’s reputation, [Thetford Mines Mayor Luc] Berthold told a Montreal reporter that the effect of asbestos dust on health pales compared to that of smog in Montreal. In the anteroom to Berthold’s office, piles of glossy flyers promote asbestos’s “safe and irreplaceable fibres,” with charts proving that tobacco and highway accidents are thousands of times more dangerous than asbestos in schools.

It’s hard to blame the place for this attitude. After all, it wouldn’t exist without the strange fibre that a farmer named Joseph Fecteau stumbled upon in 1876. He’d hit a rich vein of asbestos, long known in Europe as a miraculous substance that could not be burned or damaged by fire. Within a few years, the Thetford area was the asbestos capital of the world, and Quebeckers called the fibres white gold.

And some are not willing to let that tarnished reputation go quietly. The owner of the Jeffrey Mine says his mine isn’t closed. Both the Jeffrey Mine and Lac d’amiante du Canada continue selling asbestos in their reserve inventories. A prominent Montreal asbestos trader is working to reopen the Jeffrey Mine, and there’s talk that production may resume in Spring 2012.

It’s time to support our northerly neighbors as they try to eradicate asbestos production from their country once and for all.  Join us in our effort to Ban Asbestos Now!

Asbestos

Last Thursday, “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” brought its unique brand of political satire to point out a major flaw in the 9/11 Health Care Bill for Ground Zero first responders. The highly-touted bill covers a litany of diseases such as chronic coughing, laryngitis and carpal tunnel, but surprisingly does not cover cancer treatments. The argument used by some is that there is no scientific proof that the dust inhalation caused the cancers which are killing the brave heroes who fought dangerous conditions to find the remains of those who died there following the terrorist attacks.

When the World Trade Center was constructed in 1968, asbestos was used as a fireproofing material. While there were several asbestos abatement projects after construction, hundreds of tons of the toxic mineral were still present at the time of the terrorist attacks. When the buildings collapsed that fateful day, a toxic dust cloud filled with carcinogens rolled from the site, creating a 16-acre disaster zone. Dangerous levels of asbestos were reported throughout the city, and the clouds caused dust to enter vents and open windows throughout the city.

Over 40,000 emergency workers were exposed to this toxic dust at Ground Zero, and the results are beginning to show, as a large number of these rescuers are developing rare diseases and cancers such as mesothelioma at an alarming rate. Thousands more were exposed from being in the area during and after the events as well.  It will be very difficult to know just how many more first responders were effected since mesothelioma symptoms can take decades to surface.

Hopefully the attention brought to this story by Jon Stewart will create a need to change this situation. It is time to give first responders the medical treatment they deserve.

Asbestos