2016 - Page 4 of 4 -

The Yost Legal Group Helps Baltimore Family Secure $1,900,000 Settlement in Lead Exposure Case

Posted on March 16, 2016March 27, 2018 by YostLaw

Exposure to lead paint is a dangerous and widespread health epidemic in the United States. The CDC estimates that 4 million homes in the U.S have children that are being exposed to lead. Many of those homes are located right here in Baltimore.

In 1995, two twin girls were born in Baltimore. In 1996, the family moved into rental property, a row house in northwest Baltimore. The Landlord painted the property before the family moved in, but he didn’t take the time to remove old, peeling paint first. Because there was old, flaking paint under the new, fresh paint, it didn’t take long for the paint all over the house to chip, flake and fall to the floor.

The twin girls’ mother had no idea that this paint contained lead, and that her daughters were being exposed to dangerous amounts of lead every day while they learned to crawl and walk.

In October 1997, after the young girls and their mother had been living in the Landlord’s rental property for almost two years, the twin girls’ blood was tested for lead. Both girls were found to have lead levels in the 20’s, which is more than 400% higher than the current action level for pediatricians set by the CDC. The girls were continuously exposed to the dangerous and toxic lead in the rental home until April 1998 when they moved out of the property.

In April 1998, one of the twin girls was diagnosed with a speech disorder, and needed special education throughout her time in school. Testing by a neuropsychologist when the one twin was 19 years old showed that she had the reading ability of a 4th grader, and that her IQ was lower than 94% of people her own age. Her sister had behavior problems starting around age 3, which continued into her adult life and she was suspended from school numerous times. She also had difficulty getting and keeping jobs due to her difficulty with behavior.

The mother of the girls alleged in their lawsuit against the Landlord that they were poisoned by lead from his property, and that lead poisoning had caused their learning and behavioral problems. The mother and daughters settled their case against the Landlord before trial for $1,900,000.

If you believe that your child has been exposed to toxic lead paint due to the negligence of a Landlord or property owner, call The Yost Legal Group at 1-800-YOST-LAW (967-8529). The Yost Legal Group is a law firm with over ten years of experience representing children who were poisoned by lead and who will suffer from the negative effects of lead poisoning for the rest of their lives.

The attorneys at The Yost Legal Group are experienced professionals ready to investigate your claim with compassion and determination. Call today for a free consultation.

The Yost Legal Group – Experienced Attorneys Dedicated to Protecting Your Rights

Millions of Children in the United States are Exposed to Lead

Posted on March 4, 2016March 27, 2018 by YostLaw

Lead paint poisoning has been an epidemic in Baltimore. According to the CDC, 4 million homes in the U.S. have children who are being exposed to lead. No safe level of lead has been defined. Children are more likely to ingest lead than adults, and are more vulnerable to the effects of lead. Children who have excessive hand to mouth activity, and put toys, paint chips, dust, or soil in their mouths are at even greater risk.

Lead poisoning has been found to affect behavior and intelligence in children. Lead poisoning is more severe in children because they have a proportionately larger body surface area than adults, therefore, a greater ratio of lead will be absorbed by their bodies. Additionally, children’s brains are not fully developed and are more susceptible to the long term effects of lead poisoning.

Children who live in poorly maintained homes that were built prior to 1978 are needlessly placed in greater risk and are more likely to be exposed to lead. If your child lived in an older home and has problems with anger, or has been diagnosed with ADHD or a learning disability, he or she may have been poisoned by lead. The Yost Legal Group is a law firm with over ten years of experience representing children who were poisoned by lead and who will suffer from the negative effects of lead poisoning for the rest of their lives. Call us today at 1-800-YOST-LAW (967-8529).

HIE and Cerebral Palsy Impact Thousands of Infants Every Year

Posted on March 3, 2016 by YostLaw

Birth injuries and birth trauma are far too common in the United States. Every year, thousands of infants will be born with life-threatening conditions that are the result of a medical mistake by a doctor, nurse, or other medical professional. The most serious birth injuries are caused when a lack of oxygen damages a child’s brain. At the Yost Legal Group, our legal team wants to educate people about the dangers of these injuries, as well as their causes, symptoms and treatments.

When a shortage of oxygen (hypoxia) also causes the fetal heart rate to slow (ischemia) the infant has suffered a hypoxic-ischemic episode. If the oxygen and blood flow to the baby’s brain are interrupted during labor and delivery, even if the interruption is only for a short time, the baby may suffer a type of permanent brain damage called hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy, or HIE.

While HIE is the cause of many cases of cerebral palsy in infants, babies are often diagnosed with HIE years before a CP diagnosis is made. Here are some additional statistics about HIE which show how serious this problem is in the United States:

HIE caused by neonatal asphyxia is the leading cause of infant fatalities in the U.S.
Between 15-28% of all incidents of cerebral palsy are the result of HIE
The incidence rate of HIE among premature babies is as high as 60%

Cerebral palsy is one of the most costly neurologic disabilities in children because of its frequency (2 in every 1000 live births) and its lifelong disabling impact. Cerebral palsy cannot be cured but treatment will very often improve a child’s capabilities and in general, the earlier treatment begins the better chances are that children will overcome developmental disabilities.

If you would like to discuss your child’s potential claim arising from HIE or CP, the attorneys at Yost Legal Group are experienced professionals ready to investigate your claim with compassion and determination. For a free consultation, please call us at 1-800-YOST-LAW (967-8529).

Common Bile Duct Injuries Can Have Devastating Consequences

Posted on February 26, 2016March 27, 2018 by YostLaw

A healthy gallbladder stores bile, which is produced in the liver, and releases the bile into the small intestine to help in the digestion of food. Gallstones are small, hard, gravel-like deposits that can form inside the gallbladder. Gallstones cause pain, inflammation, infection, and blockages of the tubes, called bile ducts, which enter and exit the gallbladder. Gallstones are the most common cause of gallbladder surgery. The surgical procedure to remove the gallbladder is called cholecystectomy, and this surgery can be performed by entering the abdomen through a single, long, incision (known as open cholecystectomy) or through 3 or 4 small cuts (known as laparoscopic cholecystectomy).

Laparoscopic cholecystectomy (known as “lap choly”) is the most common and effective way to remove the gallbladder. During laparoscopic cholecystectomy, the surgeon attaches a camera and light to a scope which is inserted through one of the small incisions. The camera projects the inside of the abdomen in real time, and the doctor uses the live-feed video to guide the surgical instruments through the other small incisions and perform the surgery.

The smaller incisions typically allow the ”lap choly” patient to recovery more quickly and less painfully from gallbladder surgery, but there can also be downsides. Since the surgeon is looking at the gallbladder through a video camera there is only a two-dimensional view of the surgery being performed, rather than the three-dimensional view that open surgery allows. This affects the surgeon’s depth perception, leaving room for medical error, such as a cut, clipped or pinched bile duct. When this unfortunate form of medical malpractice occurs, blockage can occur or bile can seep from the duct and cause an infection which may even enter into the bloodstream (sepsis).

An injury to the common bile duct during gallbladder removal surgery can be very serious and even deadly if not treated in time. Symptoms can include jaundice (yellowing of the skin or eyes), intense abdominal or stomach pain, fever, chills, nausea, or swelling of the abdomen. Treatment of a common bile duct injury often requires surgical repair and can include additional gastrointestinal surgical procedures such as Roux-en-Y hepaticojejunostomy. Even patients who have had surgery to repair their common bile duct injuries can have further issues such as obstruction of bile flow.

Over half a million people have gallbladder surgery every year, making it a very common practice in the United States. Unfortunately, due to medical negligence, approximately one in every one thousand laparoscopic cholecystectomy surgeries results in bile duct injuries.

If you would like to discuss your potential claim arising from a common bile duct injury, the attorneys at Yost Legal Group are experienced professionals ready to investigate your claim with compassion and determination. For a free consultation, please call us at 1-800-YOST-LAW (967-8529).

Learn the Facts About Environmental Racism

Posted on February 25, 2016February 25, 2016 by YostLaw

The Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) is a federal agency that protects the health and welfare of Americans and the environment. The Office of Civil Rights (“OCR”) is a part of the EPA which is supposed to protect citizens from environmental racism by preventing states, local governments and private companies from discriminating based on race or ethnicity.

One of the ways a government can discriminate and engage in environmental racism is by placing hazardous waste sites or factories that cause a lot of pollution closer to a community where more people of color live. These waste sites or factories can make people sick if they are not maintained properly, or it can be more difficult, or less desirable, to live in their neighborhood due to noise, smell, or other disturbances. The OCR is supposed to investigate situations like this and make sure that no one’s civil rights have been violated. Sadly, the OCR has not been doing an effective job of protecting citizens’ civil rights—since 1993, the OCR has received 298 claims, but has never made a finding of discrimination. In fact, most of the claims are never investigated and are dismissed or rejected for various reasons.

Environmental racism is a large scale problem affecting hundreds of thousands of people, and can even contribute to groups of people getting sick or injured. In Baltimore City, lead poisoning affects more families living in low-income housing than in any other area of Maryland. Even though the State and City governments have tried to solve this problem, children are still being lead poisoned today and young adults poisoned as children will deal with the harmful effects of lead for the rest of their lives.

The Yost Legal Group is a law firm with more than twenty years of experience representing children and the parents of children who have been lead poisoned, and has helped hundreds of children obtain monetary compensation for their lead poisoning. The experienced attorneys at the Yost Legal Group can help investigate you or your child’s claim for lead poisoning. Call us today at 1-800-YOST-LAW (967-8529) to speak with an attorney absolutely FREE.

Understanding Kernicterus, a form of Brain Damage that occurs in Newborns as a Result of Jaundice

Posted on February 18, 2016 by YostLaw

Many babies are born with the yellow-tinted eyes and skin indicative of jaundice. Jaundice is caused by high levels of bilirubin, which is the yellow substance created as the body rids itself of old red blood cells.

The yellow tint of jaundice can be harder to see in babies with darker skin color. The best way to measure bilirubin is to take a small blood sample from a baby’s heel. If the bilirubin level is high (hyperbilirubinemia), treatment will begin and repeat blood samples will usually be taken to confirm the bilirubin level is dropping with treatment.

The majority of infants with jaundice are treated quickly and easily, and the condition often resolves on its own. When left untreated, however, severe jaundice can lead to permanent neurological damage.

Kernicterus, a form of brain damage, occurs in some newborns as a result of severe jaundice. If levels of bilirubin are extremely high, the bilirubin begins to collect in a baby’s brain tissue, causing extensive and permanent brain injury.

Babies with kernicterus exhibit particular symptoms. They may alternately seem “floppy” or without muscle tone and then arch their backs or exhibit extreme muscle tone. They are excessively sleepy or lethargic, feed poorly or not at all, and may have a high pitched cry.

At the earliest stages, much of the damage caused by jaundice is reversible. As the condition progresses to include the above-mentioned symptoms, however, it can result in permanent hearing loss, athetoid cerebral palsy, severe brain damage and even death.

If your child is exhibiting any of these symptoms, you should treat the situation as a medical emergency and contact the appropriate medical professional.

Kernicterus is almost always preventable. Hospitals should have an established protocol for assessing newborns with jaundice and quickly providing the care they require. Treatment of infants with kernicterus includes phototherapy, feeding with formula, rehydrating with IV fluids and performing blood transfusions if necessary.

Phototherapy lights should be placed as close to the baby as possible with as much of the baby’s body as possible exposed to the light (with eyes covered), because blue spectrum light causes bilirubin to breakdown into a non-toxic form that dissolves into water which can be eliminated from the baby’s body.

Feeding babies, whether by mouth or using a feeding tube, is also extremely important in reducing bilirubin levels in infants. Bilirubin is eliminated from the body via stool and feeding infants formula, such as Nutramigen, gives their bodies a way to eliminate the bilirubin and prevent bilirubin levels from continuing to rise. Blood transfusions may be required to lower very high bilirubin levels in the most severe cases.

If bilirubin treatment protocols are not followed, or if there is a delay or interruption in treatment, a child’s life is endangered and permanent brain injury occurs.

Unfortunately, medical mistakes contribute to the incidence of kernicterus in newborn babies. Some of these preventable mistakes include:

Doubting the extremely high bilirubin level reported form the lab, and waiting to start phototherapy and other treatment until a second lab result either confirms or corrects the abnormally high bilirubin level first reported;
Removing the infant from the phototherapy lights and stopping phototherapy in order to transport the infant for testing; and,
Measuring the bilirubin level but not comparing to the correct normal values (for example, a 24 hour old infant with a bilirubin level of 8.5 would be in the high risk category, but a 47 hour old infant with the same, 8.5, bilirubin level would be in the low risk category).

Because kernicterus is preventable with early detection, the fact that cases continue to surface is particularly deplorable.

No baby should suffer brain damage from untreated jaundice. One of the only options for a grieving family seeking justice is to begin a medical malpractice case.

If you would like to discuss your child’s potential claim arising from kernicterus, the attorneys at Yost Legal Group are experienced professionals ready to investigate your claim with compassion and determination. For a free consultation, please call us at 1-800-YOST-LAW (1-800-967-8529).

Children Exposed To Lead Are More Likely To Commit Violent Crimes

Posted on February 16, 2016March 27, 2018 by YostLaw

Lead poisoning has been known for decades to cause brain damage and new research shows that lead poisoning is linked to violent crime. Lead is a toxin that damages the parts of the brain that control impulses, emotions, and a person’s ability to pay attention. Studies from the University of Cincinnati and the University of Pittsburgh found that children exposed to lead are more likely to commit violent crimes as adults because of brain damage caused by lead poisoning.

Most children are exposed to lead in their own homes from poorly maintained paint that contains lead. In 1978, the federal government made it illegal to use lead paint in homes, but there is no law that requires a property owner to remove lead paint from a home, so many older homes still contain lead paint today. Most parents are not aware of the danger of chipping paint in their homes, or of the lasting effects of lead poisoning.

The Yost Legal Group is a law firm with more than twenty years of experience in representing children and the parents of children who have been poisoned by lead. We have helped hundreds of children obtain monetary compensation for their lead poisoning injuries. The experienced attorneys at the Yost Legal Group can help investigate your or your child’s claim for lead poisoning.

Call our office at 1-800-YOST-LAW (967-8529) for a free, confidential consultation. We’ll investigate your situation, and if you have a claim for Lead Paint Exposure, we will fight to protect your rights. There is never a fee upfront, and we only get paid when you do. If there is no recovery, then there is no attorneys fee.

The Yost Legal Group – Experienced Attorneys Dedicated to Protecting Your Rights

Residents of Flint, MI Claim “Environmental Racism” Factored into Water Contamination Crisis

Posted on February 5, 2016March 27, 2018 by YostLaw

Many residents of Flint, Michigan believe that state and city officials should have responded faster to address the widespread lead contamination of the city’s water supply. Many residents and advocacy organizations are claiming that the state’s response to this crisis was delayed because of “environmental racism.”

The population of Flint, MI is 57% African-American, and more than 41% of its residents live below the national poverty line. Advocates are speaking out and claiming that because Flint is a city comprised of a largely impoverished, African-American community, the response times to this crisis were slower than they should have been.

The city’s lead pipes have still not been replaced, and thousands of Flint residents remain at risk of being exposed to dangerous amounts of lead poisoning.

FDA Issues Safety Warning About Medicinal Clay Product Due to Elevated Levels of Lead

Posted on February 4, 2016March 27, 2018 by YostLaw

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is warning consumers to avoid “Bentonite Me Baby” by Alikay Naturals due to a risk of lead poisoning.

“Bentonite Me Baby” is marketed as medicinal clay that can be ingested or applied topically for the treatment of several conditions. However, safety testing of this product revealed that that “Bentonite Me Baby” tested positive for elevated levels of lead.

Center for Disease Control Calls for More Research About the Safety of Using Antidepressant Medications During Pregnancy

Posted on February 2, 2016March 27, 2018 by YostLaw

In the CDC’s most recent Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, the agency calls for greater research on antidepressant drug use during pregnancy. The CDC’s research in the past has indicated that there may be a link between the use of SSRI antidepressant medications during pregnancy and an increased risk of serious birth defects in children.

The CDC’s National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities (NCBDDD) is working to improve the health of mothers and their children with their new Treating for Two initiative. Treating for Two aims to work with pregnant women to identify safer treatment options.

Year: 2016