Research shows that 2.1 million elderly Americans suffer from abuse or neglect each year. Furthermore, for every case of neglect and abuse that goes unreported to the law, there may be as many as five other cases that are not identified.

One Martinsville, Virginia, nursing home owner will pay the price for his part in perpetuating this problem after he was found guilty today of abuse and neglect of an incapacitated adult that resulted in death. According to an article released by WSLS 10 News, the man will now face a sentence of five years in prison when sentenced later this year in October.

The charges stem from an accident that occurred in February of last year at a group home for adults that resulted in a 57-year-old Parkinson’s Patient being severely burned. Court documents and testimony show that the man was left in a bathtub with scalding water that left the man with second and third-degree burns over a large portion of his body.

Caretakers failed to give the man proper treatment or take him to a hospital under the direct order of the group home’s owner. Roughly two weeks later the patient died from Sepsis and secondary infection stemming from the wounds.

The Virginia Personal Injury Lawyers with the Skolrood Law Firm say that the best way to prevent Nursing Home Neglect from occurring to your loved one is to remain active in their care. Ask plenty of questions to caretakers and doctors to better understand and to ensure that your loved one gets the care they need.

HealthGrades estimates that approximately 195,000 Americans die each year because of preventable hospital mistakes, and hundreds of thousands more individuals are hurt as a result of these accidents.

These injuries can range from something as simple as a medication error to a botched surgery. Recently, a bizarre case of hospital error occurred last month in a Virginia hospital. According to an article released by the Duluth News Tribune, a woman who had just given birth at the facility was given the wrong child, sending both sets of parents into a panic.

The accident occurred, according to hospital officials, because of an outdated card ID system the hospital had in place to identify both mother and child failed. The failure occurred when staff failed to change the child’s cards when the mother moved rooms and another woman was brought in. Failure by hospital staff to check both mother and child’s hospital ID bracelets for a match also was a contributing factor in the mistake.

The hospital stated that in response to the incident, they have installed a new ID system that has an auditory alarm that will sound if the mother and child’s bracelets do not match.

Accidents resulting in the need for a Virginia Medical Malpractice Lawyer are simply caused by negligent medical staff. If you’ve been injured under a doctor’s care, a Virginia Personal Injury Lawyer with the Skolrood Law Firm may be able to help you.

When driving, a single wrong decision can mean the difference between life and death. This is the lesson that one man says he has taken from an accident he caused that claimed the life of his co-worker.

According to The Roanoke Times, the crash happened on July 28, 2011. The men had been celebrating a promotion by buying a case of beer and taking it to the victim’s home. The pair drank for the remainder of the day, but decided to go on one final beer run before the man responsible for the crash went home.

The victim was initially driving but decided that he was too intoxicated to drive and asked his friend to take over. His friend also was drunk and drove the vehicle off the side of the road at around 85 mph, causing the vehicle to flip.

The 35-year-old man responsible for the crash pleaded guilty in January to a single count of involuntary manslaughter and DUI.

Many witnesses came to his aide saying the man was never much of a drinker and rarely had more than three beers at a sitting. When asked by the court how the accident had affected him, the man stated, “I made the worst mistake I ever made in my entire life.”

The Virginia Auto Accident Lawyers with the Skolrood Law Firm ask that you never drink and drive, as operating while intoxicated can have deadly consequences.

A 21-year-old man from Rustburg, Virginia, has been charged with the deaths of two Lynchburg, Virginia, siblings after allegedly striking their vehicle while driving drunk. According to WSLS 10 News, the crash occurred on the morning of July 3 last year around 3:00 a.m. along US 460 in Prince Edward County.

The brother and sister, both in their early 20s, were heading back to their home in Farmville when a vehicle driven by the suspect hit them head-on. The suspect’s vehicle was allegedly in the wrong lane of traffic with his lights off at the time of the crash.

The drunk driver was taken into custody and was indicted by a grand jury earlier this week on charges of reckless involuntary DUI manslaughter. If convicted, the man could face anywhere from two to 40 years in prison for his crimes.

According to prosecutors, the commonwealth’s attorney decided to drop regular DUI charges that were placed against the defendant in order to focus on the more serious charges of DUI manslaughter.

The man responsible for the crash remains free on bond pending a trial, which is set to begin on June 28.

The Virginia Auto Accident Lawyers with the Skolrood Law Firm ask that citizens all contribute to keeping Virginia’s highways safe by not drinking and driving. If you have been consuming alcohol, call a taxi or sober friend or family member to get you home safely instead.

In today’s technological age, we are experiencing a growing problem of distracted driving thanks to advanced cellphones, GPS devices, and car stereo systems. In fact, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates that as many as 5,000 individuals lost their lives in motor vehicle accidents where distracted driving was a contributing factor.

That is why one organization, UNITE, with the help of the Virginia State Police, is working to curb these numbers by visiting school campuses with a high-tech distracted driving simulator.

The simulator works by putting students in mock driving scenarios where they must also send text messages through a phone at the same time. One instructor stated, “The simulators are set up to put them in a real-life driving experience. It’s kind of a worst-case scenario with driving conditions. Cars are swerving out in front of you. People are walking across crosswalks.” When a driver hits an obstacle, the ride is over and Troopers issue the participant a mock citation.

WSLS 10 News reported that the simulator will be set up at the Miller-Motte Technical College campus at the Tanglewood Mall on April 28 from 11:00 AM to 5:00 PM.

The Roanoke Car Accident Lawyers with Skolrood Law Firm encourage anyone in the area to give the simulator a try. It may just be the lesson you need about distracted driving that saves your life or the life of another motorist.

A worker at a steel plant in Salem, Virginia, tragically lost his life Monday in an on-the-job accident. According to The Roanoke Times, the incident occurred around 9:45 a.m. at the New Millennium Building Systems on Diuguids Lane.

Reports indicate that workers were unloading steel tresses from a truck when one of the 8,000-pound beams shifted loose and fell on the worker. He was pinned beneath the giant piece of steel and could not free his legs. Rescue crews were called to the scene and were able to lift the beam enough to free the man. He was then taken to Carillion Roanoke Memorial Hospital, but later died as a result of the massive injuries he sustained in the accident.

Both New Millennium Building Systems and the Virginia Department of Labor and Industry are investigating the accident further to determine what could have been done to prevent it.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics says that fatal work injuries amongst workers in the material moving industry were up by 5 percent in 2010 from previous years and accounted for roughly one-quarter of all work related deaths with 683 workers killed.

The Virginia Wrongful Death Attorneys with the Skolrood Law Firm would like to send their deepest sympathies to the family of the worker who was killed and would also like to remind the public to always obey safety regulations at your job or worksite.

A 35-year-old man in Penhook, Virginia, was seriously injured after being involved in a two-vehicle collision Tuesday. According to The Franklin News-Post, the accident happened at 8:05 a.m. on US 220, just north of Sontag Road.

A spokesman for Virginia State Police, Master Trooper Tim Harris, stated that the man was driving his 1999 Toyota Tacoma pickup truck south when he struck the right rear side of a Hyundai Accent in the left lane. The impact sent the Accent careening off the highway and into the median, but the driver was able to gain control of the car and pulled over on the side of the highway.

The pickup truck went off the right side of the highway and went airborne before landing in a field. The truck then hit several stumps, which caused the vehicle to roll. The driver was partially ejected from the vehicle during the crash.

While the driver of the Accent was uninjured, the driver of the Tacoma had to be airlifted to Carillion Roanoke Memorial Hospital to receive treatment for serious injuries sustained in the accident.

Harris stated an initial investigation led police to believe that speed may have contributed to the accident.

The Virginia Auto Accident Lawyers with the Skolrood Law Firm would suggest that the best way to prevent being injured in an accident when driving is to always buckle up and obey the posted speed limit.

A Caroline County Circuit Court judge has ordered a bus dispatcher from North Carolina to stand trial in Virginia on charges connected to a crash that killed four passengers. An article released by WDBJ 7 News stated that the crash happened on the morning of May 31, 2011, along I-95, about 30 miles south of Richmond.

A spokeswoman for the Virginia State Police, Corinne Geller, told reporters that the bus was traveling northbound on the highway when it began to veer off toward the shoulder of the road. The bus left the lanes of traffic, hit an embankment, and rolled onto its roof. A total of 57 people were on board at the time of the accident. Dozens of passengers were injured and four died.

The bus driver later told police that his dispatcher ordered him to keep driving despite complaining that he was too tired.

The 41-year-old dispatcher was charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter, to which he pleaded not guilty in court Wednesday. A circuit court judge ordered that a trial begin June 18. The driver of the bus also faces four counts of involuntary manslaughter.

The Virginia Auto Accident Lawyers with the Skolrood Law Firm say that bus drivers are limited, by law, to the amount of time they can drive per day. Going over that allotted time is illegal and may be considered negligent behavior for the driver and dispatcher.

A Virginia jury yesterday ruled in favor of the parents of two Virginia Tech students who filed wrongful death lawsuits against the school after their daughters were brutally murdered during the campus shootings in April 2007. According to WSLS 10 News, the parents were seeking $100,000 in damages.

On that spring morning nearly five years ago, the gunman shot victims in a dormitory on the campus. Police and school officials originally believed the shooting was domestic in nature and not a threat to other students on campus.

Meanwhile, the shooter moved to another campus building and began his spree that became the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history. School officials waited two hours and 15 minutes after the first shots were fired to warn students of the danger.

The parent’s lawsuit contended that the school waited too long to warn students, and that their daughters may still be alive today if warnings had been issued sooner.

After hearing the verdict, lawyers for the parents stated they will ask the governor to waive the $100,000 cap on the judgment. They added that if the governor won’t do it, they will find a state senator or representative who will propose it to be waived during the next legislative session.

The Virginia Wrongful Death Attorneys with the Skolrood Law Firm hope the ruling will help bring a sense of closure to the families who tragically lost their loved ones.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a warning concerning a counterfeit cancer drug that may be in some hospitals. According to a recent press release from the agency, 19 medical practices in the United States have received warning letters after purchasing the counterfeit versions of the cancer drug, Avastin, through foreign sources. The agency says that other facilities may have purchased the fake medications as well.

The FDA says that the counterfeit drugs are labeled Avastin, manufactured by Roche. Roche manufactures the drug outside the United States and is the sister company of Genentech, Inc., which manufactures it in the United States.

It was determined through testing that certain batches of the Roche version of Avastin didn’t contain the active ingredient bevacizumab, which means patients who took the counterfeit medications may not have received the treatments they needed.

Packages or vials may be counterfeit if they are:

• labeled with Roche as the manufacturer,
• or display batch numbers that start with B6010, B6011, or B86017.

The counterfeit drugs came from Quality Specialty Products (QSP), a foreign supplier that’s also known as Montana Health Care Solutions. Volunteer Distribution in Gainesboro, Tennessee is a distributor of QSP’s products. The FDA asks that medical staff with products from these suppliers contact them immediately.

The Virginia Drug Injury Attorneys with the Skolrood Law Firm are here to help you if a medication you took caused you harm or injury.