Whiplash & Compression

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You may list whiplash among your accident symptoms. It’s the most common complaint of auto accident victims and difficult to avoid.

At the moment of impact, you sometimes receive many physical traumas simultaneously. Whiplash is almost inevitable. Even slow speed accidents can cause whiplash. Women are more subject to whiplash than men because they generally have longer, more slender necks and less muscle strength in the neck and upper shoulders.

Depending on the direction of the impact, your neck may have been forced rapidly backwards by the force of the collision, then rapidly forward or from side to side, hyper extending the muscles and nerves in both directions. To complete the situation, you may have been turning at the time of the accident to see the oncoming car, looking in the rear-view mirror, or forced into an awkward position by your seatbelt, creating a complicated twisting rather than a simple whiplash. You may have hit your head on the headrest or steering wheel, compounding the injuries.

Dealing with the expensive consequences of an accident requires an effective Cherry Hill car accident attorney. You deserve help paying your medical bills and lost wages. If you suffered an accident injury, call a Cherry Hill car accident attorney at the Law Office of Andrew A. Ballerini in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, at 856-665-7140.

Law Office of Andrew A. Ballerini
Cherry Tree Corporate Center
535 Route 38, Suite 328
Cherry Hill, NJ 08002

Trauma In Your Body – Threat Response

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Freeze is an ancient response to prey animals, a way to hide from the attacker. In the human hunter/hunted situation, freezing may reduce or de-escalate the attacker’s level of violence. Many of us freeze during trauma because biologically it is one of our life-saving options.

When a body mobilizes its defenses in response to threat by either fighting, fleeing, or freezing, and then is unable to complete the response or to discharge those defensive energies, it is left in a state of over arousal and disequilibrium. If not, there are far-reaching implications for our health and well-being.

Unfortunately many trauma survivors live with tremendous shame for frozen in the face of danger when in actuality your body responded in the only way it knew how. When the freeze response occurs, it is a decision made by the reptilian brain as your best chance of survival in that situation.

Dealing with the expensive consequences of an accident requires an effective Cherry Hill auto accident lawyer. You deserve help paying your medical bills and lost wages. If you suffered an accident injury, call a Cherry Hill auto accident lawyer at the Law Office of Andrew A. Ballerini in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, at 856-665-7140.

Law Office of Andrew A. Ballerini
Cherry Tree Corporate Center
535 Route 38, Suite 328
Cherry Hill, NJ 08002

What Causes Trauma?

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People react differently to potentially traumatic situations. If the car spins out and ends up safely at the side of the road, we might see a range of reactions. Some people, as soon as they realize they successfully escaped injury, would feel exhilarated and excited. Other may feel so much fear from the realization of what could have happened that they feel confused and disoriented, even after they land safely on the side of the road. In the future they may feel apprehensive or even phobic about driving.

In a more tragic scenario the experience may have resulted in waking up in an emergency room and finding out a passenger or someone in the other car was killed – causing traumatization.

Some events would traumatize some people and not others, whereas more severe events would traumatize anyone. A person’s reaction or capacity to cope in any specific event is influenced by what is called their Range of Resiliency as well as by the specifics of the event.

An individuals Range of Resiliency is in turn influenced by factors such as a genetic background, personal history and current support system, and whether or not they have experienced other traumas in their life.

For example, if a person who just experienced a fender-bender had been in an accident five years prior where her passenger died, her reaction would likely be very different than that of someone who have never been in a previous accident.

Dealing with the expensive consequences of an accident requires an effective New Jersey car accident lawyer. You deserve help paying your medical bills and lost wages. If you suffered an accident injury, call a New Jersey car accident attorney at the Law Office of Andrew A. Ballerini in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, at 856-665-7140.

Law Office of Andrew A. Ballerini
1522 Route 38
Cherry Hills, NJ 08002-2214
(856) 665-7140

Pressure Ulcers Among Nursing Home Residents

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An idea of the prevalence of pressure ulcers among Nursing Home Residents from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from a 2004 study. While the study is old, as far studies go, be aware that you can investigate all nursing homes online.

In New Jersey you can go to the Dept. of Health and Senior Services website. You can get results of surveys and see the deficiencies. Something to know, aside from how pretty and enticing a facility may attempt to appear. In my humble opinion and experience, the homes are often worse than what shows up in the surveys, even.

Key Findings:

  • More than 1 in 10 nursing home residents had a pressure ulcer.
  • Pressure ulcer prevalence varied by age, sex and length of time since admission to the nursing homes, but not by race.
  • Pressure ulcer prevalence varied by difference resident clinical characteristics.
  • In 2004, about 159,000 current U.S. nursing home residents (11%) had pressure ulcers. Stage 2 pressure ulcers were the most common.
  • Residents aged 64 years and under were more likely than older residents to have pressure ulcers.
  • Residents of nursing homes for a year or less were more likely to have pressure ulcers than those with longer stays.
  • One in five nursing home residents with a recent weight loss had pressure ulcers.
  • Thirty-five percent of nursing home residents with stage 2 or higher (more severe) pressure ulcers received special wound care services in 2004.
  • Pressure ulcers, also known as bed sores, pressure sores, or decubitus ulcers, are wounds caused by unrelieved pressure on the skin (1). They usually develop over bony prominences, such as the elbow, heel, hip, shoulder, back, and back of the head (1-3). Pressure ulcers are serious medical conditions and one of the important measures of the quality of clinical care in nursing homes (1,4). From about 2% to 28% of nursing home residents have pressure ulcers (2,3). The most common system for staging pressure ulcers classifies them based on the depth of soft tissue damage, ranging from the least severe (stage 1) to the most severe (stage 4). There is persistent redness of skin in stage 1; a loss of partial thickness of skin appearing as an abrasion, blister, or shallow crater in stage 2; a loss of full thickness of skin, presented as a deep crater in stage 3; and a loss of full thickness of skin exposing muscle or bone in stage 4. Clinical practice guidelines for pressure ulcers have been developed and provide specific treatment recommendations for stage 2 or higher pressure ulcers, including proper wound care (5). This Data Brief presents the most recent national estimates of pressure ulcer prevalence, resident characteristics associated with pressure ulcers, and the use of wound care services in U.S. nursing homes.
Our New Jersey nursing home abuse lawyer will correctly identify the legal issues in your nursing home lawsuit. Many times our clients come in thinking one thing is a problem, when really they deserve compensation for something else. Call (856) 665-7140 today for free consultation.
Law Office of Andrew A. Ballerini
1522 Route 38
Cherry Hills, NJ 08002-2214
(856) 665-7140

Comparative Negligence

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Most, if not all, states have abandoned the strict rule of contributory negligence in favor of the doctrine of “comparative negligence.” Under comparative negligence, your negligence is compared to the other party’s negligence, and the damages you are entitled to recover are reduced by you own percentage of fault. Say you suffered $50,000 worth of damages in an accident in which you were 25 percent responsible and the other party was 75 percent at fault. You can sue the other party for your damages, but you damages will be reduced by $12,500 (25 percent of $50,000). Who determines the amount of your fault and how? The jury decides, based on all the evidence presented during the trial. Suppose you were injured during an automobile accident, and the jury rules that you and the other driver were each 50 percent at fault. Does the driver have to pay you anything?

The answer depends on what state you’re in. some states have a “pure” system of comparative negligence, which lets you sue the other party no matter how much you were at fault. If you were 99 percent negligent and the other party was only 1 percent negligent, you could sue the other party; of course, you’d only collect 1 percent of you damages. So when you’re 50 percent at fault, the other driver has to pay for half your damages. ( You, in turn, are liable for 50 percent of the other driver’s damages.

Dealing with the expensive consequences of an injury accident requires an effective New Jersey accident attorney. You deserve help paying your medical bills and lost wages. If you suffered an accident injury, call a New Jersey accident attorney at the Law Office of Andrew A. Ballerini in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, at 856-665-7140.

Law Office of Andrew A. Ballerini
1522 Route 38
Cherry Hills, NJ 08002-2214
(856) 665-7140

Assumption of Risk

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You generally cannot sue a person for injuring you if you knowingly and voluntarily assumed the risk that you might be injured. This is the legal doctrine of “assumption of risk.” Suppose you’re leaving you friend’s house one winter day. She walks you to the door, looks at the walkway, and says, “You’d better not go out that way because there’s ice all over the walk. Use the back door.” You reply that you’ll be okay and use the front walk  - and then slip, fall, and hurt yourself. You have assumed the risk of being hurt because you knew the danger (ice) was there and voluntarily approached it, even though there was a way of avoiding the danger. If you participate in a sport, you assume the risk that you may be injured. This is true whether you are a professional, high school, or college athlete, or a novice playing a sandlot game on Sunday. Suppose you are playing on a basketball game at the local park when a player on the other team comes up from behind and deliberately pushes you into the pole holding the backboard, breaking your nose and causing other facial injuries. Does assumption of risk bar you from suing that player? No. You only assume risks that are inherit in the sport – a “part of the game.” Assumption of risk does not prevent you from suing a player who intentionally injures you.

Dealing with the expensive consequences of an injury accident requires an effective New Jersey accident lawyer. You deserve help paying your medical bills and lost wages. If you suffered an accident injury, call a New Jersey accident lawyer at the Law Office of Andrew A. Ballerini in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, at 856-665-7140.

Law Office of Andrew A. Ballerini
1522 Route 38
Cherry Hills, NJ 08002-2214
(856) 665-7140

Trauma

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Trauma is any event that breaks the body’s stimulus barrier, leading to overwhelming feelings of helpless. Psychological trauma is the state of severe fright that we experience when we are confronted with a sudden, unexpected, potentially life-threatening event over which we have no control, and to which we are unable to respond effectively no matter how hard we try.

During an auto accident, there is too much stimulus to deal with at once. Think of being in a room with a radio turned up too loud and being unable to turn it off or move away from it. Events that might be manageable one at a time become overwhelming or traumatic when too many of them crowd in on us at once.

An experience is traumatic if it is: 1) Sudden, unexpected, non-normative, 2) Exceeds the individuals perceived ability to meet its demands. – Lisa McCann, Pd.D., in Psychological Trauma and the Adult Survivor.

Traumatic events are extraordinary not because they occur rarely, but rather because they overwhelm the ordinary human adaptations to life…the common denominator of psychological trauma is a feeling of intense fear, helplessness, loss of control, and threat of annihilation.

Dealing with the expensive consequences of an auto accident requires an effective Cherry Hill accident lawyer. You deserve help paying your medical bills, lost wages, and repairs to your car. If you suffered an accident injury, call a Cherry Hill accident lawyer at the Law Office of Andrew A. Ballerini in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, at 856-665-7140.

Law Office of Andrew A. Ballerini
1522 Route 38
Cherry Hills, NJ 08002-2214
(856) 665-7140

Automobile Insurance

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Your liability insurance policy would cover you in that instance by providing you with an attorney to defend you in that claim and by indemnifying (reimbursing) you for any judgment render against you in that case up to your policy limits. If your policy limits are fifty thousand dollars, but the judgment entered against you is for five hundred thousand dollars, then your insurance company is obligated to pay fifty thousand dollars. The remaining four hundred and fifty thousand dollars may come from your pocket.

Also within an automobile insurance policy there may be comprehensive coverage. Comprehensive coverage is a type of first party coverage wherein you may make a claim against your own policy as a result of damage to your vehicle. If your vehicle was damaged in a collision and you do not wish to or cannot assert a claim against the other party (or if you were at fault), then you may make a claim against your own policy under you collision coverage. Your insurance company will then pay you for the repair cost of your vehicle. In the event your vehicle is totaled, it will pay you the fair market value for that vehicle. If someone other than you was a t fault, your insurance company may then have a right of recovery against the other driver.

Dealing with the expensive consequences of an auto accident requires an effective Cherry Hill car accident lawyer. You deserve help paying your medical bills, lost wages, and repairs to your car. If you suffered an accident injury, call a Cherry Hill car accident lawyer at the Law Office of Andrew A. Ballerini in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, at 856-665-7140.

Law Office of Andrew A. Ballerini
1522 Route 38
Cherry Hills, NJ 08002-2214
(856) 665-7140

Automobile Insurance

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The type of insurance coverage that you are probably most familiar with is automobile insurance coverage. An automobile policy may include several different forms of coverage. Within one policy there may be liability coverage, there msy be medical expense coverage, there may be collision coverage, and there may be uninsured motorist and underinsured motorist coverage. Each of those types of coverage is dramatically different and each of them has a different objective.

Liability coverage is designed to protect you, the insured, in the event you are involved in a collision in which some other person is injured as a result of your alleged negligence. If a person is injured and they contend that you are negligent, then they may assert a liability claim against you for their medical expenses, lost wages, pain and suffering, resulting disabilities, disfigurement, etc.

Dealing with the expensive consequences of an auto accident requires an effective Cherry Hill auto accident lawyer. You deserve help paying your medical bills, lost wages, and repairs to your car. If you suffered an accident injury, call a Cherry Hill auto accident lawyer at the Law Office of Andrew A. Ballerini in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, at 856-665-7140.

Law Office of Andrew A. Ballerini
1522 Route 38
Cherry Hills, NJ 08002-2214
(856) 665-7140

Insurance

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An insurance policy is a contract. The parties to the contract are the insurance company and the insured. In addition, there may be a beneficiary or what may be referred to as a third party beneficiary of an insurance contract. In a life insurance policy, the beneficiary is the person who receives the death benefits upon the death of a person who was insured. In an automobile insurance policy, the third party beneficiary under a liability policy is the individual who was injured and who receives compensation from that liability insurance policy. The beneficiary or third party beneficiary is not a named party to the insurance contract, but is generally the person who is intended to benefit from the insurance policy. As such that beneficiary may have certain rights under the policy.

There are a variety of different types of insurance policies that can be written. The most common types of policies are liability, life insurance and heath insurance policies.

Dealing with the expensive consequences of an auto accident requires an effective Cherry Hill auto accident attorney. You deserve help paying your medical bills, lost wages, and repairs to your car. If you suffered an accident injury, call a Cherry Hill auto accident attorney at the Law Office of Andrew A. Ballerini in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, at 856-665-7140.