“Half the people given mechanical heart pumps designed to avoid transplant surgery died within a year, according to a study suggesting the device’s popularity has grown faster than doctors’ skill.”Bloomberg News Among 1,500 patients given a heart pump instead of a heart transplant, 48 percent survived died within the first year. Whether these deaths were caused by the negligence of the medical staff or the device itself, is the question.
At hospitals installing at least five pumps a year, the risk of death dropped 31 percent, researchers said.
“The devices have great promise but are being used too often in the wrong patients and at the wrong hospitals — in people who are too sick to benefit, and at hospitals that do not treat enough patients to gain the expertise needed for their complex care — the researchers say.” according to the New York Times.
As President Bush gets ready to leave office, the American Association for Justice (AAJ) will be montering 21 possible regulations that could prove devastating to consumers’ safety and their right to hold corporations accountable for producing dangerous products. Regulations to have 60 days to go into effect before President Bush leaves office and that deadline is quickly approaching.
“In their final days, we hope the Bush administration will keep in mind the safety of consumers over the corporate profits they have sought to protect time and time again,” said AAJ President Les Weisbrod.
The list which includes safety standards for over-the-counter drugs, sunscreens, automobile safety standards, and crashworthiness of railroad cars transporting hazardous materials mostly contains the “preemption” language that could prohibit using the civil justice system as a means to hold manufacturers responsible for unsafe products.
The pending regulations AAJ has been following include six from the Food and Drug Administration, nine from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), three from the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), a regulation from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and a regulation from the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).
To read the complete list
Parents are being urged to inspect their child’s crib and tighten up the hardware.
In May 2007 an 8-month-old girl from Bryan, Texas, died because the safety pegs on her crib were not installed. The crib’s side detached, leaving a gap where she got stuck and
More than a year later, in July 2008, an 8-month-old boy in Tallahassee, Fla., suffocated after a spring-loaded safety peg failed and allowed the side of his crib to detach.
Together with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Division Delta Cribs have announced two voluntary actions produced between 1995 and 2007 that use our drop side trigger lock designs.
If these pegs are not installed, or if they fail to engage, the drop-side can detach and create a dangerous gap where babies can get stuck.
These cribs were manufactured in Taiwan and Indonesia and sold by major retailers including Wal-Mart, Kmart and Target.com, between January 1995 and September 2007
