In a study released on May 21, 2012, the Journal Pediatrics reported that half of the nation’s overweight teens have unhealthy blood pressure, cholesterol or blood sugar levels that put them at high risk for future heart attacks and other cardiac problems.

Unfortunately, we’re losing the battle early with many kids.  People can keep their risk of heart disease very low if they reach age 45 or 50 at normal weight and with normal blood pressure, normal cholesterol and no diabetes. The study demonstrates that half of our overweight teens have higher than normal blood pressure, cholesterol and/or blood sugar levels. So, today’s teens have a 20 or 30 year head start on heart disease.

It is important now more than ever to set a good example for our children by eating healthy, exercising, and keeping our weight within normal limits.  Eating healthy does not mean you can’t have an occasional donut, burger or fries.  As with most everything, moderation is the key to success.

Good eating habits learned at an early age can carry us to adulthood; avoiding many health care issues that may arise such as obesity, diabetes, and cardiac problems.

To read more on the health risks associated with being overweight see the following links:

Overweight Teens at Risk for Heart Disease

CDC: Half of overweight teens have heart risk

Studies Show Overweight Teens Have Heart Disease Risk

Searcy Denney Attorney, Brenda Fulmer and her family helped the Palm Beach County Food Bank feed more than 800 families this past weekend at Village Baptist Church in West Palm Beach.

Several times each month, volunteers spend their Saturday processing hundreds of pounds of produce that have been donated or obtained through the charity’s gleaning operations at various farming locations in the area. The volunteers are also involved in loading vehicles with meat, bread, fruits, vegetables, and non-perishable items.  In the first 12 days of May of 2012, the PBC Food Bank collected and distributed more than 400,000 pounds of food to local families and charities.

According to the Food Bank, the need is much greater than anyone realizes and the numbers prove it:

Recent data tell us why hunger in Palm Beach County is today at record levels:

• 10% unemployment for the last several years
• Close to 30,000 foreclosures filed between 2010-2011
• More than 2,000 homeless residents
• 165,000+ residents currently receive supplemental nutrition assistance benefits (food stamps). This represents nearly a 200% increase from 2007-2011
• 50% of Palm Beach county students receive free or reduced-price lunch (closer to 90% in western Palm Beach County)
• The 211 Helpline has seen a 30% jump in calls for food over the past 12 months
• According to Feeding America, almost 17% of Palm Beach County residents often don’t know where their next meal will come from.

In 2011, the Community Food Trucks program rescued and collected 4.1 million pounds of food worth about $6.4 million, which was distributed for free to 124 local soup kitchens, homeless shelters, and other food pantries.

It is estimated that it will take more than 40 million pounds of food to satisfy the current needs of this community, so the Palm Beach County Food Bank is expanding its efforts with the addition of refrigerated trucks, and is looking for a warehouse facility.   The food bank is also involved in distribution of meals at Thanksgiving and a Food Recovery Program, which collects unused, prepared food from restaurants, hotels, festivals, and other events.

For more information about or donations of money or time at the Palm Beach County Food Bank and its needs, please contact Perry Borman, Executive Director, at info@pbcfoodbank.org.

If you are a dog lover and owner, as I am, you know many times dogs and breeds get a bad rap when a dog bite story hits the news wire. We tend to generalize about breeds and sizes of dogs that are particularly, we think, dangerous. While this may be unfair in general, the truth is over 4.7 million get bitten by dogs annually and over half of those victims are children. So, the problem is both a real one and one of legitimate concern.

The American Veterinary Medical Association American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), the Postal Service, the American Academy of Pediatrics American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Society of Reconstructive Microsurgery, the Insurance Information Institute and Prevent the Bite are driving home the message that dog bites are a nationwide issue and that education can help prevent dog bites to people of all ages. The key to prevention starts with responsible pet ownership and ends with how we interact with dogs in our environments.

In my career I handled hundreds of dog bite claims and almost all of them were avoidable if proper training and prevention methods had been practiced. I have witnessed firsthand the horrific pain and suffering and disfigurement these incidents have on people, particularly innocent children. Many times the psychological damage is a worse burden to bear than the physical injuries and it is sometimes never overcome. It is a tragedy that some victims must live their lives in constant fear of every dog and of every encounter.

I think it is great that a week is dedicated to this issue across the country. Here are some excellent tips on dog bite prevention and responsible pet ownership supplied by the AVMA:

How to Avoid Being Bitten

• Never leave a baby or small child alone with a dog.
• Don’t run past a dog. The dog’s natural instinct is to chase and catch you.
• If a dog threatens you, do not scream and do not run. Avoid eye contact. Try to remain motionless until the dog leaves, then back away slowly until the dog is out of sight.
• Don’t approach a strange dog, especially one that’s tethered or confined.
• Don’t bother a dog that is sleeping, eating or caring for puppies.
• People choosing to pet dogs should obtain permission from the owner first and always let dogs see and sniff you before petting the animal. Also, curl your fingers into your palm and reach out to the dog with your palm down, fingers curled so that your hand looks more like a paw than a weapon.
• If you believe a dog is about to attack you, try to place something between yourself and the dog, such as a backpack or a bicycle.
• If you are knocked down by a dog, curl into a ball and protect your face with your hands.

How to be a Responsible Dog Owner

• Obedience training can teach dogs proper behavior and help owners control their dogs.
• When letter carriers and others who are not familiar with your dog come to your home, keep your dog inside, away from the door in another room.
• Dogs can be protective of their territory and may interpret the actions of others as a threat.
• Spay or neuter your dog. Neutered dogs are less likely to roam and to bite.
• Dogs are pack animals and communal by nature. Those that receive little attention or handling, or are left tied up for long periods of time, frequently turn into biters.

As a pet lover I know what a tremendous wonderful addition these loving animals have been to my family. We owe it to them, and all of society, to get the message out and pay attention. We can eliminate millions of dog bites and avoid the preventable ensuing tragedies and associated millions in medical costs in emergency rooms across the country.

Prevention is the key because by the time the many folks here in Florida come to see our firm for help sadly the damage is already done, and we are left picking up the pieces of another senseless tragedy.

It has now been reported that for the first time in 20 years, U.S. health officials have lowered the threshold for lead poisoning in young children.  The new standard means hundreds and thousands of young children could be diagnosed with high levels of lead.  Too much lead is harmful to developing brains and can mean a lower IQ.  The standard is for children younger than six.

Really there is no safe level of blood lead in children according to Mr. Portier of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Lead poisoning is detected through a blood test.  The change means poisoning will be defined as 5 micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood.  The old standard was 10 micrograms.  Under the old standard lead poisoning in children has been on the decline in the United States.  Experts estimated that approximately 77,000 and 255,000 children had high levels of lead.  This recent change could raise the count to 450,000 cases.

For additional valuable information, please visit: Lead Free Kids, Safety At Home or Mayo Clinic.

Kids continue to be targets of tobacco manufacturers. They have been from the very beginning and as tobacco company sales fall, the tobacco industry has demonstrated a willingness to pull out all the stops to maintain their beginner smoking programs.

In 2009, as part of President Obama’s comprehensive Family Smoking Prevention and Control Act, candy and fruit-flavored cigarettes were banned.

Lucky Strikes Uses Santa Claus as a Role Model

Anyone who has even the most basic knowledge of the history of cigarette manufacturers like Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds and their targeting of the youth market can appreciate why cigarette makers would manufacture candy and fruit flavored cigarettes.  Almost 90 percent of adult smokers start smoking as teens and over 440,000 die each year from cigarette-related deaths, the goal of such a ban is just as obvious. In fact, tobacco companies spent millions conducting studies of youth smoking trends long after the Surgeon general’s report in the 1960’s. A 1974 study comparing the effect of menthol cigarettes on youthful smokers set forth:

”More than 50% of men smokers start smoking fairly regularly before the age of 18 and virtually all start by the age of 25.”

“If a person is going to smoke cigarettes, he generally starts during his teens…”

“Most of the young men spoken to indicated very early initial experiences with cigarettes. Many talked about first trying a cigarette before the age of ten.”

So it should come as no surprise that while the new federal law called for merely the ban of candy-flavored cigarettes, flavored tobacco products such as chewing tobacco and flavored cigars are not against the law.  And who then is surprised by the fact that these products are rising in popularity, especially among the grade-school aged crowd.

This trend is troubling.  Any tobacco product that a child uses, whether it is a cigarette, cigar or chew, contains nicotine.  Nicotine is a drug, a powerful drug.  In 1988, the Surgeon General determined that the addictive properties of nicotine are similar to that of heroin and cocaine.  One need not be a specialist in addiction to know the dangers of a child exposing their still maturing brain to any addictive drug, much less one as powerful as heroin.

This trend is also disturbing.  Why?  Because among other things, it highlights exactly the type of opponent that anti-tobacco advocates (and those hundreds of millions of Americans who actually do value our children’s lives) are up against – an industry who preys on our kids and, who short of federal regulation, have shown no willingness to stop preying on our kids, simply because it is obviously the right thing to do.

Kudos then, to Miami-Dade County, for attempting to join only New York City, Providence, R.I., and Santa Clara, CA, as the only municipalities that have banned flavored cigars and chewing tobacco.

Foie Gras is said to be a delicacy. I have never had it, but I am sure there are real foie gras lovers out there. I am, however, hoping to dissuade you of this particular craving.

What is foie gras? Liver. Not just any liver, but the liver of a duck or a goose.

Before we proceed, let’s understand that this is not a vegetarian issue I am writing about; this is a humanity issue. This is an issue about us humans actually acting humane.

The mass production of foie gras has been a subject of heated debate; not because ducks or geese are killed for their liver, but the methods used to supposedly “improve” the delicacy of foie gras.

To produce foie gras, ducks and geese are force fed by shoving a tube down their throats two or three times per day. The pipes severely damage the esophagus in the duck and the goose. As you can imagine, the birds are terrified and simply wait for this abuse to be inflicted each day. This process induces a very painful condition called fatty liver. This condition is intentional and supposedly “improves” the quality of the foie gras.

Fatty liver in ducks and geese undergoing forced feeding is a condition that often ultimately results in the animal being incapable of moving, induces respiratory distress, seizure, depression, unconsciousness and death. This process of force feeding also leads to bacterial infection, fungal growth, and pneumonia.

Because the liver acts as a filter for the blood and screens toxins, dangerous buildup of streptococcus, E. coli and dangerous toxins can be found in livers of these ducks and geese.

A number of plaintiffs have recently filed a lawsuit against the United States Department of Agriculture alleging that the agency is violating several sections of the Poultry Products Inspection Act. In the lawsuit, the plaintiffs maintain that:

“Force-fed foie gras, which consists of the pathologically diseased livers of force-fed ducks or geese, is by definition an unwholesome, adulterated poultry product that is unfit for human consumption under the PPIA. Foie gras is created by a force-feeding process called gavage, which is engineered to induce acute hepatic lipidosis, or fatty liver disease, in ducks or geese. Overwhelmed by fat deposits, the livers of force-fed birds begin to degenerate and their capacity to filter toxins from the circulatory system diminishes. Toxins accumulate in the blood, causing serious systemic diseases that require condemnation under the 25 PPIA, 21 U.S.C. § 451 et seq., its implementing regulations, and USDA agency policy.”

A recent study from the National Academy of Science has linked the consumption of foie gras with the development of amyloidosis in humans. Amyloidosis can be a deadly disease with symptoms including: heart failure, arrhythmia, pulmonary bleeding, enlargement of the spleen, rupture of the spleen, hemorrhaging of the gastrointestinal system, and serious neurological damage.

Many countries in the world have outright banned the force feeding of animals, including: the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Norway, Poland, Austria, Holland, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Once the fourth largest producer of foie gras, Israel banned forced feeding of animals in 2003.

If animal cruelty is an insufficient reason for you to refuse to consume foi gras, perhaps the fact that more than 14 modern countries have banned the cruel treatment is enough.

Or if you simply do not mind the fact that by consuming foie gras you are probably sucking down dangerous toxins and bacteria, maybe the below video will change your feelings. Fair warning though, the video is not for the faint of heart and really is as shocking as the inhumane abuse being inflicted upon these animals each day:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ojvu7qHWqoM[/youtube]

Every so often a law comes along that so blatantly discriminates against one group of people that we all must stop and wonder how legislators can justify their actions even to themselves.

It may be that the target of such obviously unfair laws is no longer limited to race or religion. Instead, many of the individuals that now face the most significant discrimination are the poorest among us; whose lower socioeconomic status apparently entitles them to less justice than the rest of us. That is very certainly an opinion that a majority of our legislators held when they recently passed Florida Statute § 766.118(6).

A recent manifestation of their apparent lack of concern for the less fortunate in Florida,  F.S. § 766.118(6), purposely limits the ability of Medicaid recipients to make the same financial recovery as non-Medicaid patients. Florida Statute 766.118 was originally enacted in 2003 with the Florida legislature placing caps on what non-economic damages a plaintiff can recover in a lawsuit arising from medical negligence.

Non-economic damages in Florida include portions of a judgment allocated for:

• pain and suffering
• mental anguish
• loss of capacity for the enjoyment of life

Simply, this means that regardless of what a jury decides that an injured person’s pain & suffering is valued at, that recovery is limited to whatever the legislative branch dictates. This is true without regard for the individual of that person’s injuries, disabilities, or their suffering.  Apparently, Florida lawmakers have determined that the citizens of our state that take the time to serve as jurors are simply incapable of hearing evidence in a case first hand and then rendering an acceptable award of damages.

The Florida Supreme Court recently heard oral arguments in McCall v. The United States of America over whether non-economic caps on medical negligence verdicts under Florida Statute § 766.118 are unconstitutional.

Though the constitutionality of non-economic caps has been a matter of great debate since the law was passed in 2003, the 2011 amendment to the law placed even further limitations on recovery for those who receive Medicaid. Florida Statute §766.118(6) limits a Medicaid patient that is the victim of medical negligence to a recovery of only $300,000 in non-economic damages and only $200,000 from a single practitioner or doctor. This is considerably less than the other caps imposed by Florida Statute §768.118, on anyone who is not a Medicaid recipient.

For example, in cases involving death or a permanent vegetative state, a non-Medicaid individual may recover up to $1 million in non-economic damages from practitioners, but a Medicaid patient may only recover up to $300,000.

What it comes down to is lawmakers treating the lives of those of lower economic means with less importance and valuing the significance of their pain and suffering more cheaply than that of everyone else. With Florida Statute §766.118, the legislature decided that human lives and pain and suffering are only worth so much, while section 6 amended that to declare that the lives and suffering of the less fortunate are worth even less.

I’ve always agreed with Ghandi’s quote that, “A nation’s greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members.” In Florida, our lawmakers have decided that those in the most need should be treated as inferior to everyone else.

Politics and political influence has no business within the courthouses and courtrooms of Florida. The rule of law should be just that, rules that are followed regardless of one special interest groups views or another. Our judicial system is the last great guardian of the rights of individual citizens in our state.

This is why our firm is a proud host of a program occurring on May 17^th, from 5:30 PM to 7:30 PM, and held at The Harriet Himmel Theater, located at 700 S Rosemary Ave., West Palm Beach.

This program is a wonderful opportunity to receive information about promoting an impartial justice system and how each of us can be a part of defending justice in Florida.

The speakers will include guest panelists Florida Supreme Court Justice Barbara Pariente, 4^th District Court of Appeal Judge Martha C Warner and City of Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jack Seiler.

This forum is not a fund raiser; it is, rather, an excellent opportunity to hear from these intelligent and insightful panelists about the importance of keeping politics out of the courts and out of the judicial process.

For more detailed information, go to the Defending Justice website or call our law firm.

Hmmmm, sound familiar? In my prior posts I have tried to hone in on some of the real root causes of mounting pharmacy errors. Unfortunately the Big Retailers want to create their own personal version of Hammertime’s “you can’t touch this” by pigeon holing any error into the “we are all mere mortals that make errors” column.

Then, lo and behold, I read with great interest in USA Today that CVS’s top gun attorneys are out there defending  two CVS pharmacies from being shut down by the DEA ( Drug Enforcement Agency ).

The new excuse they are using? The “we are a big busy pharmacy” defense and we would never “knowingly” fill an illegitimate prescription for heavy narcotics for cold hard cash.

According to University of Florida Emeritus Professor Paul Doering, CVS should not have filled these sketchy prescriptions:

“Someone from Kentucky who travels to a doctor in Fort Lauderdale and presents a prescription for oxycodone in Sanford, Fla., is to me a huge red flag, I can’t speak for every pharmacist in the world, but this pharmacist is not going to fill that prescription.”

So maybe a big busy pharmacy that is understaffed is the root cause of the problem after all?

If I hadn’t read it for myself I would have thought I was dreaming. So when it comes down to being shut down, facing fines, and who knows, even criminal investigations, out comes the “big busy pharmacy” defense. However, when an understaffed pharmacy is looked at as the root cause analysis for prescription errors that maim and kill people, we get the argument that it’s “a red herring” and the big chain pharmacy argues that they always have sufficient staff to properly fill prescriptions.

The truth is the epidemic of prescription errors are part and parcel of adopting a fast food mentality to dispensing dangerous medications. Yes, we are indeed all human and we make mistakes. I certainly don’t think anyone would intentionally harm someone. However, I also suspect that neither does the person who gets behind the wheel of a car when impaired, but it is still unacceptable and even criminal to allow that dangerous condition to exist.

If you remember the classic I Love Lucy episode where Lucy had to grab chocolates off the conveyer belt to put into boxes her “human error rate” went from zero to whole lot of chocolates going on the floor, in her uniform, and in her mouth when the conveyer belt was set too fast.  Like I have said before an error with my burger or even with my chocolate may be a nuisance, but it won’t likely kill me.

Until the pharmacy industry recognizes the serious nexus between understaffing and pharmacy errors, more tragedies sadly will most certainly be on the rise. That is the dirty little secret that business models driven by profits as opposed to safety, have to be addressed. The truth is, depending on the product, one business model may not be right for another. The changes must ultimately come from within these groups, but it will be investigations like this one by the DEA in Florida and civil suits accompanied by punitive damages will ultimately be the impetus to force the necessary self-reflection for the retail pharmacy industry.

Until then I intend to keep calling it like I see it……

For those of us who read George Orwell’s book, 1984, the thought of “Big Brother” watching us can be a little chilling. But, when is Big Brother-like oversight a good thing?

When we can use the information to understand how people are injured and killed in vehicle crashes and how we may be able to lower those injuries or deaths. In addition, maybe it is also acceptable if it helps us understand what caused an accident and what might be done about it.

When I investigate vehicle accidents, I regularly use data from what is commonly called the “black box” or the “Event Data Recorder” in cars and trucks. We are able to very often secure valuable information that can assist in reconstructing what happened to culminate in a crash.

When inspecting a vehicle after a crash, one of the things important to obtain and analyze is black box data such as:

• Engine speed (rpm’s) for the  seconds before impact
• Vehicle speed (mph) for the  seconds before impact
• Seat belt usage (belted or unbelted)
• Throttle percentage
• Air bag deployment
• Brake application
• Steering input
• Force of impact (delta v)

Although not all vehicles have black box data that is useful in accident investigation and reconstruction, the number of models that do are increasing with each model year.

So, combining Event Data Recorder with the evidence at the scene, we are able to reconstruct the events of any given accident. The evidence at the scene typically includes:

• Skid marks; indicating braking and swerving attempts
• Yaw marks; gouge marks caused when the crash damage deforms metal and causes the road surface to be damaged at the point of impact. Sudden braking; the length of tire marks starting from when brakes are first urgently applied or the smoothing of the roadway when antilock braking occurs and skid marks are absent due to the proper use of antilock braking system (ABS).

We will prepare a detailed diagram of the accident scene, noting road configuration, impact points and all the above information. We obtain 360° photographs of the scene including vertical to scale aerial photos and, in some cases actually have a laser scan done of the entire scene; which allows us to virtually reconstruct the scene.

Collecting evidence and evaluating vehicle crash data requires experience and knowledge and, frankly, not just anyone is qualified to do it in a competent manner. That is why many of us at Searcy Denney have chosen to specialize in accident investigation and reconstruction.