On December 7th, 2012 – Dave Farnbauch spoke at a National Business Institute seminar for “Top Nursing Home Liability Claims in Indiana” regarding “Utilizing Rules, Reptile, Focus Groups and Visual/Video Evidence to Enhance your Persuasion in Nursing Home Cases”. The seminar was designed primarily for attorneys, however, it also benefitted nursing home administrators, medical staff, insurance professionals, government staff and paralegals.

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LEE KELSO: Did you know that every sixteen minutes a person is either injured or killed in an accident involving an eighteen-wheeler, tractor trailer, or semi-truck? A typical fully-loaded large commercial truck can weigh eighty-thousand pounds or more, while a typical passenger automobile weighs only about three-thousand pounds. While semi-trucks make up just three-percent of the vehicles on the road, they are involved in twelve-percent of fatal accidents on the road. Joining us today to discuss legal claims arising from truck accidents is David Farnbauch, attorney with the Sweeney Law Firm. Thanks for taking sometime with us today to advise.

DAVID FARNBAUCH: Pleasure to be here today.

LEE KELSO: David you and your law firm have handled more than your share of truck cases over the past few years. What are some of the most common causes of these truck accidents?

DAVID FARNBAUCH: Well I think one of the most common causes of truck accidents is driver fatigue, often over the road truck drivers will be driving for many hours at the time of the accident, they are tired and they are fatigued that results in an accident.

LEE KELSO: When a truck driver causes a personal injury on a highway, what are some of the potential parties that might be held responsible other than the truck driver himself? 

DAVID FARNBAUCH: Well truck accident cases are particularly complex because one of the things that we have to do initially is find out whose involved in that truck being out on the road. Often there will be an owner of the actual truck itself. There will be another owner of the tractor. They’ll be a legal entity that will be responsible for the shipment of the cargo that’s involved in the accident. Thus, there is any number of parties that may be involved in the accident as defendants in a truck accident case. 

LEE KELSO: David in your experience, what is it that makes a legal case against a truck driver more challenging or complex in cases that involve two cars that collide on a roadway?

DAVID FARNBAUCH: Well I think that there are a number of things that make these cases more complex. First of all, most of the time that we are dealing with a truck accident we are dealing with a more significant and often a more catastrophic injury. When a seventy-thousand pound semi collides with a motor-vehicle normally there are serious injuries that are involved, so that increases the complexity of the claim. Second of all, these cases involve extensive investigation. Often the whereabouts or the activities of a truck driver for up to a week before the event. So we have to obtain all of the driver logs and evidence of where that truck driver was. Normally there is an accident where reconstruction is involved to try to quantify what speed the truck was traveling and where the vehicles came together, so normally there would be accident reconstruction experts that are involved in these cases, so these cases can be very complex. 

LEE KELSO: Can you take our viewers through some of the steps you and your law firm takes when a client comes to you after an accident involving a semi-tractor trailer?

DAVID FARNBAUCH: Well one of the first things we do if we are hired shortly after an accident is to get a letter to the trucking company and ask them to preserve the evidence or preserve the truck and the parts and pieces of the truck immediately after an accident, so that evidence can be analyzed by investigators and accident reconstruction people to try to piece together how the accident happened. The other thing that we try to do is immediately secure as I mentioned before the driver logs. When truck drivers are driving a load on the highways, they are required to keep records of their whereabouts. What time they start the trip, how many stops they made and all the information has to be logged in an employees log book. So we try to immediately get possession of a copy of the driver’s log book.

LEE KELSO: If one of our viewers is seriously injured in an accident involving a tractor trailer, what advice do you offer that person or their family?

DAVID FARNBAUCH: Well the most important advice that I can give particularly a truck accident is the need to call a lawyer who has experience doing truck injury cases immediately after the accident. Trucking companies immediately dispatch investigators and accident reconstruction people to the scene often within hours of when an accident occurs. So they are able to secure the evidence, secure witness statements right away. In order to present a case it’s important for the injured party to get a hold of a lawyer right away so that your own attorney can get out and secure witness statements and secure the evidence right after an accident as well.

LEE KELSO: Thanks for spending some time with us today David sharing you experience in these striking cases. 

DAVID FARNBAUCH: Thanks for having me.  

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Host 1: Welcome back to INSight. We are joined now by Dave Farnbaugh and we’re going to talk about a really important topic, something that people don’t necessarily think of until they’re in a situation. What do you do after you’ve been involved in an accident? It’s just one of those unfortunate things.

Host 2: It’s something that we don’t want to happen, but unfortunately it does probably happen to everyone one at some point in their life. In their life, their driving down the road, and I’m in the car, let’s say someone hits me even and I’m not responsible for it at all. Let’s say even it’s a minor accident, do I need to get on the phone right then? I mean obviously I call the police first, then do I need to get on the phone and call the Sweeney Law Firm right then? What do I do?

Dave: Well, the issue of whether you should call an attorney right away depends on the severity of the injuries that are involved. If it’s a minor crash then probably calling an attorney’s not the best idea but if you’ve been injured in an accident, you’ve been taken to the hospital, you’ve been treated at the emergency room, you have some on going symptoms and problems after the accident. It probably makes sense before you start talking to the insurance company to find out a little bit about what your rights are, about what’s going to happen, and those sorts of things, so it depends a lot on the severities of the injuries in the crash.

Host 1: We live in an age where everyone has a cell phone that they can take pictures with. Do you recommend that if you’ve been in an accident, a car accident for example, that you or your family takes pictures right away? At the scene or later on? 

Dave: I think that the most important issue as it pertains to photographs is photographing the injuries themselves. Most of the time after a car crash, the insurance companies are going to be out taking a lot of photographs of the damage of the cars, but what comes and goes are the injuries from the crash itself. Often times people have bruises, seat belt bruises, or they’ll have a collection of blood, contusion, or hurt some part of their body that is going to be here today; gone in a few days.  If you don’t take photographs of those injuries then that critical evidence can be lost.

Host 2: I know the couple of times that I’ve been in accidents, they’ve all been minor thank heavens, but they’ve not been my fault. They’ve been the other drivers fault. So the others drivers insurance company has called me and questioned me. Is it ok for me to talk to them?

Dave: Well, that’s probably the big issues that a person has to decide from the get go about how they’re going to approach the insurance company contacting them. What people have to understand is that insurance companies are in business not only to pay claims but to minimize the amount of money that they pay out in claims. So insurance adjusters receive training on how to talk to people on the phone, get you to say things that maybe aren’t in your best interest. They always ask you, “Well how are you doing?” Most people don’t like to be on the phone and cry and whine about their own injuries, so a lot of people say, “Well, I guess I’m doing ok” or “I’m feeling better.” That’s a relative term. You might be feeling really bad, but compared to how you felt a day after the accident, you are doing better. There are certain things that people say to an insurance adjuster over the phone that causes harm to their legal case. We think it’s better if you are involved in any type of a serious accident where you receive treatment at the emergency room or you have some on going symptoms, to consult an attorney before hand to decide whether you should give a statement to an insurance company, what you should say, and also decide whether you may need an attorney to represent you in that case. It’s in your own best interest to have an attorney through this process. The insurance companies have done studies on the amount of compensation that a person receives if they don’t have an attorney or the amount of compensation that a person receives if they have an attorney. Insurance companies own research shows that if a person has an attorney they’re apt to receive twice as much compensation, even after attorneys fees are paid compared to their counter parts who don’t hire an attorney. That’s one of the critical issues, if you are entitled to compensation through medical expenses, lost earnings, and pain and suffering. You have to decide do I want to go at this alone, or do I want to get competent legal representation to help me though the process and hopefully maximize the amount of my recovery.

Host 2: Is there some check list or something that the Sweeney Law Firm would have that can kind of tell us what we should do or give us a guide line of how we would go about it if we were in that situation?

Dave: Well, we do. What we provide to consumers is information about some of the steps that they should take immediately after an accident. This pertains to how you should deal with the insurance company. Also, steps that you should take, including some common sense things, don’t give a statement over the phone unless you’re certain about what your legal rights are. Photograph your injuries. Just a variety of helpful tips and we put it in the form of a brochure or free report that we give people so if you go to our website or you call our law firm, we’ll send you this free report which gives people a lot of valuable information on what to do immediately after an accident.

Host 1: That’s so great because a lot of times after an accident it shakes you up. And even though things might seem like common sense, you know as we sit here and talk; after you’ve had that traumatic experience – you don’t have your wits about you.

Host 2: You don’t and you’re just overwhelmed by the whole situation. If you have been involved in an accident or feel like you need legal advice, you can give the Sweeney Law Firm a call today or visit their website.

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LEE KELSO: One of the most important things you can do to protect your family is to make sure you have adequate insurance coverage, particularly when it comes to auto insurance. We’re here today with attorney David Farnbauch, a long time lawyer from Fort Wayne, whose going to talk to us today about some of the most important insurance coverage you should include on your auto coverage. David thanks for being with us today.  

DAVID FARNBAUCH: It’s great to be with you today.

LEE KELSO: David most of our viewers probably carry uninsured or under-insured motorist coverage on their auto policy. I’ll bet some of our viewers do not fully understand the distinction between uninsured and under-insured coverage. Could you explain?

DAVID FARNBAUCH: Well uninsured motorist coverage is coverage that motorists purchase to protect themselves against another driver that causes an accident and that other driver does not have any auto liability insurance whatsoever. That’s known as uninsured motorist coverage. Under-insured motorist coverage is protection that you purchase to protect yourself against a driver who has auto liability insurance, but do not have enough coverage to fully cover all the damages that are caused in the accident. For example: in Indiana a motorist is required to carry at least twenty-five thousand dollars per person in liability coverage. frequently we see accidents in our office where the damages, the medical bills alone are a hundred- thousand, two-hundred thousand, three-hundred thousand dollars, so if the other driver’s only carrying twenty-five thousand dollars worth of liability insurance coverage, that driver’s not carrying enough insurance to fully cover all of your damages from the accident. So you have to look to your own policy to provide additional coverage over and above what the other driver was carrying.

LEE KELSO: David in Indiana is it mandatory that you have uninsured or under-insured motorist coverage as part of your own auto-insurance coverage?

DAVID FARNBAUCH: No it isn’t mandatory, in fact its one of those things that we always recommend to our clients. Whenever they renew their auto-insurance coverage we ask them to take a look at both their uninsured and under-insured motorist coverage to try to purchase as much uninsured and under-insured coverage as they can afford because there are many situations where accidents are caused by drivers who are carrying very low limits like twenty-five thousand or fifty-thousand dollars worth of auto-insurance coverage.

LEE KELSO: What are the typical policy limits for coverage sold to consumers in the State of Indiana? 

DAVID FARNBAUCH: The typical policy that we see sold in the State of Indiana is a policy that provides a hundred thousand dollars coverage for injuries to any one person or three hundred-thousand dollars for all of the occupants in the vehicle or what we call per accident coverage. So with a hundred-thousand dollar policy limits for the at fault driver commonly we see situations where there is a serious accident even the medical bills alone will exceed the two hundred-thousand dollars that’s available under the at fault driver’s auto insurance coverage that’s why it is important to check your own policy and try to purchase more under-insured motorist coverage so that if you are involved in a serious accident you can recover damages on your own policy.

LEE KELSO: So why would a person want to add uninsured or under-insured coverage to their policy?

DAVID FARNBAUCH: Well I think the big reason that you would want to have coverage as I mentioned before is because so many drivers in the State of Indiana that are carrying lowland policies. you see advertisements all the time on television for insurance companies that are selling so-called minimum coverage. There is a very significant percentage of drivers out there that are driving around with only twenty-five thousand dollars worth of insurance coverage and it does not take much of an accident or much of a hospital stay to go through twenty-five thousand to fifty-thousand dollars of auto insurance coverage just to cover medical expenses alone, so I think that is imperative every time you renew your policy to talk to your agent about how much uninsured and under-insured motorist coverage you can afford. 

LEE KELSO: How much uninsured and under-insured coverage should a family carry?

DAVID FARNBAUCH: I think that based on our experience and based on current medical expenses a four or five day hospital stay right now will run you around somewhere between fifteen and a hundred-thousand dollars. I would say that once again if your budget will afford it we would recommend the family carry a minimum of two-hundred fifty thousand dollars of under-insured motorist coverage if you can afford it. Purchase an additional umbrella policy of a million dollars worth of under-insured motorist coverage. You’ll find if you talk to an insurance agent that an umbrella policy that gives you an additional million dollars of under-insured motorist coverage it doesn’t cost more than a few hundred dollars per year. 

LEE KELSO: Give our viewers some idea just how much uninsured and under-insured insurance coverage comes into play in the aftermath of a motor vehicle accident.

DAVID FARNBAUCH: I would say that in the last ten years approximately half of the motor vehicle accident cases that we have in our office will ultimately recover damages under the client’s own auto insurance policy, so once again with increased cost of medical care and the number of drivers that are driving on the Indiana roadways with minimum one month policies it’s very critical to purchase uninsured motorist coverage for your own protection.

LEE KELSO: If one of our viewers is involved in an accident and has questions about uninsured or under-insured motorist coverage does your firm offer free consultation?

DAVID FARNBAUCH: Our law firm like most law firms who handle accident cases offer free consultation, so if you have questions about whether uninsured or under-insured motorist coverage applies to your situation feel free to call our office and we’ll answer your questions for free.   

LEE KELSO: That’s good advice. Thanks for shedding some light on this confusing subject and spending time with us today.

DAVID FARNBAUCH: Thanks for having me.

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Bank Employees Help Drunk Driver Change Tire

On September 27, 2012, then 29-year-old Gabriel A. Biddle pulled into the iAB Bank’s Leo branch sometime before 2:30 p.m. Biddle first tried to enter the drive-thru going the wrong way and then stopped, his silver Toyota Corolla having a flat tire. According to the lawsuit filed by Neal, employees at the bank noticed Biddle staggering and acting as though he did not seem “aware.” The lawsuit claims that the bank’s employees recognized that Biddle appeared to have been drinking and were concerned that he might be driving drunk. Still, they helped him repair his flat tire when he could not.

It was later revealed that someone from the bank did dial 911 to report a possible drunk driver, but it is unclear when this call was made. Three minutes later and 6 miles away, Fort Wayne police responded to a crash at Maplecrest and Evard roads. At the intersection of Maplecrest and Evard, Biddle rear-ended a vehicle at full speed and the collision caused a chain-reaction crash involving several vehicles. The driver of the first vehicle that was struck had to be extricated from her car and suffered broken ribs, fluid in her chest and throat from bruising and needed to have her elbow surgically repaired.

A blood test revealed that Biddle had a blood alcohol content at more than six times the legal limit, an astounding 0.52. Suit has now been filed against the iAB bank for helping Biddle get back behind the wheel of his car. The Court, and possibly a jury, will now have to decide whether the bank employees helping Biddle change the tire was a proximate cause of the accident.

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LEE KELSO: Every year thousands of Hoosiers are injured on roadways and motor vehicle accidents. Here today to talk about why there is an increase in the number of accidents on Indiana roadways is veteran trial attorney David Farnbauch, a personal injury attorney from Fort Wayne, Indiana. Thanks for joining us today David.

DAVID FARNBAUCH: It’s great to be here today. 

LEE KELSO: Why are there so many accidents?

DAVID FARNBAUCH: Well I think that the reason that there are so many accidents on the roadways now as opposed to maybe a different era is the issue of driver distraction. I think nowadays you see lots of people that are on the roadways that are distracted by cell phones or smart phones. We see lots of accidents that are caused by young people who are texting while driving. You see a lot of people traveling down the roadways that are trying to carry on a conversation while they are driving. There are just a lot of distractions that cause people to collide with other vehicles.

LEE KELSO: David in some states there are now laws on the books that prohibit drivers from talking on a cell phone or texting while driving. Has the Sweeney Law Firm seen an increase in accidents either from distracted driving or other similar problems. 

DAVID FARNBAUCH: There is no question that our office has seen a significant number cases that are a direct result of the use of technology while in the vehicle. I would say that about half of the cases that we see in our office now is motor vehicle accidents. There is some reference in the police report to a driver that was either reaching for a phone or they were texting while driving or something of that nature that causes them to be distracted while driving down the road.

LEE KELSO: David, if one of our viewers is involved in a motor vehicle accident that’s the vault of someone else, what advice do you have for them?

DAVID FARNBAUCH: Well I have a couple pieces of advice I can give to people who are involved in a motor vehicle accident. I think the first thing is if you have symptoms and pain that you should seek medical treatment. People often don’t go to the emergency room. They sort of delay getting medical treatment and I think that if you are showing symptoms and pain you should go to the emergency room. If you have symptoms and pain after visiting the emergency room you should go visit your family doctor or some other physician to get your symptoms checked out. That is the first piece of advice. The other thing is that people often delay getting legal advice after an accident. It does not cost anything to consult an attorney about an accident case, so I would recommend that you consult with an attorney shortly after an accident and get some legal advice about what your options are and what your rights are as the victim as an accident.  

LEE KELSO: Dave I would assume that after an auto accident the insurance adjuster for the at fault party tries to contact the injury victim to get a tape recorded interview or statement about what happened in the wreck. What advice do you have for victims who are asked to give a recorded statement?

DAVID FARNBAUCH: I would say that probably the first piece of advice that I would give somebody after a motor vehicle accident is not to give a recorded statement to the adjuster or insurance company.

LEE KELSO: Does the Sweeney Law Firm offer consultation to people who have been injured in a motor vehicle collision?

DAVID FARNBAUCH: Sweeney Law Firm does offer free consultation in auto accident cases and I think most law firms that handle these types of cases offer free consultation. 

LEE KELSO: What are some of the reasons that a person who is injured in a car crash  would want to talk to an experienced personal injury lawyer before they talk to an insurance adjuster?   

DAVID FARNBAUCH: I think one of the common misconceptions that people have about insurance adjusters contacting them after an accident is that the insurance adjuster calling you should try to help you out, provide helpful information and pay money to you to fix your car pay medical expenses. I think that oftentimes people do not understand that the insurance adjuster has a job to try to investigate the accident and get you to day things that are helpful to the other insurance companies. I think oftentimes people when they are contacted by an insurance adjuster they say things about their medical condition or they make admissions or statements about the accident that are harmful to their case. I think it’s oftentimes people are put into a stressful situation they aren’t trained to deal with insurance adjusters and often they just say the wrong things that are recorded that ultimately hurt their legal case so it’s important to talk to an attorney about the facts of the accident to get some advice on how to talk to insurance adjusters and learn about your legal rights before to talk to an insurance adjuster.

LEE KELSO: Mr. Kelso you have given some good advice today. Thanks for spending some time with us.  

DAVE FARNBAUCH: Thanks for having me.            

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Host 1: Welcome back to INSight, we are joined now by attorney Dave Farnbaugh and attorney and doctor Greg Kauffman. They are from the Sweeney Law Firm and we are talking about medical malpractice and medical errors and they’re causing a lot of issues. Not just issues, they’re causing a lot of deaths in the United States, probably more than people realize. Yes?

Dave: Yes. Charity, there are some pretty alarming statistics out there about what’s a health problem in the United States. Statistically there are a numbers of people in the United States each year that are injured as a result of medical errors or medical malpractice. They say anywhere from 40,000 to 98,000 people a year are killed as a result of medical malpractice. There was a recent study that was done that showed only 1 in 4 patients were told of an abnormal test result by their doctor. There are a lot of medical errors that cause harm and there’s a lot of things that can be done by patients to protect themselves from being a victim of medical malpractice.

Host 1: Do you think that people are not doing anything when they are a victim of medical malpractice because they don’t realize they were a victim of medical malpractice or because they think that it’s too expensive to proceed with a medical malpractice case?

Greg: Well I think that both factors are operative. I think a lot of times, individuals and families don’t know what’s happened. I’ve seen many many cases in my career where people for example have a child whose brain damaged. Sometimes these people are told for years by doctors who see the child that there was some kind of problem with an infection during the pregnancy or maybe it’s an inherited disorder or something like that. There really is great reluctance on the part of doctors to inform families about mistakes, so a lot of times they just don’t know and a lot of times people don’t know what can really be done about it. They’re concerned about the cost of taking action so it’s a multi-factorial kind of problem.

Host 2: Now if someone has been or a loved one has been a victim of medical malpractice, obviously the last step would be to come to an attorney and handle that. But what are some steps that you can take to be proactive so that perhaps this doesn’t happen in the first place?

Dave: Well there are a number of things I think that can be done. In fact, there is a wonderful book if you come to our website that was written by an attorney in Washington D.C. that lays out nine steps that people can take on their own to prevent one from being a victim of medical malpractice. One of the most important things that you can do is a very simple thing is to get a copy of your own medical records and read them. A lot of times you are going to learn things that are in your medical records. A lot of people are under the misconception that only doctors can understand medical records. It’s really not that way. There are probably some things that are in your medical records that would surprise you. One of the things you can learn by getting your own medical records is how good of a listener your doctor is. One of the key things is to find a physician whose a good listener and is willing to communicate with other physicians that they refer your care to. Because that’s one of the major causes of medical malpractice events is when health care providers don’t talk to other health care providers. The left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing so test results are put into your chart but the doctor never looks at it or a referral is not made with regard to an abnormal test finding and then later on it’s discovered but it’s too late to do anything about it. So the most important thing that you can do is be proactive, get a copy of your medical records, read them, get a second opinion, not just with the regard on the decision to have surgery, a lot of people will only get a second opinion if a surgery is recommended. At every major cross road where you face an important medical decision, you should get a second opinion, or a third opinion. Doctors will frequently disagree about what the diagnosis is and what the proper course of action is.

Greg: Another thing that I think people can do to help protect themselves in the medical system is to be their own advocates. Make sure that your doctor is listening; make sure the doctor understands the problems that you’re having. I think it’s very helpful if a family member, or if no family member is available a friend who would go with the patient to the doctor or spend time with the patient in the hospital and take note of what’s going on and sort of ask questions on behalf of the patient I think that’s very important.

Dave: I think once again to throw another statistic at viewers, which I think is very interesting, they’ve done studies on how many people actually do something when they are a victim of medical malpractice and the statistics show that only 1 in 8 people that are the victim of medical malpractice ever even assert a legal claim. The reason for that I think, after having done these cases for a long time Greg and I, a lot of people are concerned that taking action to pursue a medical malpractice case is something that can be very costly on their part and it doesn’t cost anything. Lawyers who handle these types of cases generally take these cases on a percentage fee basis which means we only charge a fee if we make a recoveries. Most offices that do these kinds of cases finance the litigation. We pay for the expert witnesses, we pay to get the medical records, so there’s really no out of pocket cost on the clients behalf. What you really need to do to get the ball rolling is simply pick up the phone and call an attorney who specializes in these types of cases and then we get the records and hire doctors to review the records and give us analysis and opinions about whether there is a meritorious legal case. Then we have a meeting with the client, we say this is what we recommend. Either you don’t have a case that is worth pursuing or you do. Then we run with it. One of the most valuable services that we could provide, even in cases that we ultimately recommend to the client that we don’t pursue a case, is we can give them some answers about what happened and that’s one of the most valuable functions. Often times these families will have a ton of questions when there’s an adverse medical event about what happened in the whole scenario, why there’s a bad outcome or an injury to a loved one or a child and Greg and I can provide them with answers about what happened.

Greg: The fact that I am a physician enables me in the vast majority of cases to be able to simply talk with family members and just from the information that I gained, just from that interchange, I can almost always tell if it is something that can be pursued or something that really shouldn’t be pursued. 

Host 1: All right, well if you have some questions give the Sweeney Law Firm a call today and they can provide you with answers that you need.

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LEE KELSO: The field of medical malpractice is one of the most specialized areas in all of law. Medical malpractice cases are among the most complex and difficult cases and there are not many lawyers who can handle these cases on a regular basis. With us today is a medical malpractice lawyer David Farnbauch. David, glad you could be with us today to talk about medical malpractice. 

DAVID FARNBAUCH: Its great to be here today. 

LEE KELSO: David let’s start with some of the basics. Can you explain by what is meant by the term medical malpractice? Well the term medical malpractice really means that a doctor or a hospital or some healthcare provider, provided care that was below what is known as the standard of care is the level of care or expertise expected to be provided by the typical medical provider in that field.

LEE KELSO: David what are some of the more common types of medical malpractice handled by you over the years.

DAVID FARNBAUCH: I think some of the most common types of medical malpractice that we see in our office are cases that involve the failure to diagnose a particular condition. Sometimes there are problems revealed in tests, x-rays that are taken, studies that are done that reveal that is a tumor or problem and that report is given to a doctor and the doctor never relays that information to the patient, so there is nothing to follow up on the treatment after that condition has been discovered. Then, later on a person develops cancer or another serious condition that could have been treated earlier. Thus there is a claim brought against the doctor or medical provider for failing to diagnose the problem earlier. Another type of a medical malpractice case would be a case where surgery was performed and the surgery was not performed according to the standard of care and an injury results.  

LEE KELSO: If one of our viewers believes that they have been harmed as a result of medical malpractice what’s the first step? 

DAVID FARNBAUCH: Well I think the first step is to contact a lawyer or a law firm that specializes in medical malpractice cases. What is usually involved in a medical malpractice case is we collect all of the medical documents that surround a precedure or medical care and treatment that was rendered to the patient. We provide those records to another doctor or a specialist in that field of medicine to analyze whether there has been medical malpractice involved in the care. 

LEE KELSO: David if someone believes that they have been the victim of medical malpractice does it cost them anything to have your law firm investigate the case and decide whether the case is worth being pursued.

DAVID FARNBAUCH: No it does not cost anything. We handle medical malpractice cases on a contingent fee basis. We never charge a fee unless there is a recovery, settlement, or verdict in the case. it will not cost the client anything to have us investigate the case. If there are expenses involved in hiring witnesses to analyze the medical records and determine whether there has been a  breach of the standard of care then our office advances those expenses on behalf of the client.

LEE KELSO: If it is proven that a doctor or a hospital committed medical malpractice causing injury or harm to a patient what kinds of damages could be recovered in lawsuit.

DAVID FARNBAUCH: Well in a medical malpractice case it is much like a personal injury case where danages can be recovered for the injuries themselves for physical pain and mental suffering caused by those injuries. If there is medical expenses to treat the medical malpractice that is recoverable. Damages can be recovered from missing work. If the ability to pursue a career was damaged or impaired we can recover damages for lost future earnings. if there is a death as a result of a medical malpractice. Also if there is a loss of love and companionship for the loved ones of the injured.

LEE KELSO: David is there a statute of limitations on filing a medical malpractice case?

DAVID FARNBAUCH: There are time limits for filing a medical malpractice case in Indiana. Your case has to be filed within two years of the occurence of the negligent act or malpractice. Thus, it is important for people if they believe that they or a family member was the victim of medical malpractive should contact an attorney as soon as the alledged negligent act occured, so an investigation can be conducted before the statute of limitations expires.

LEE KELSO: David you have given us very good information about medical malpractice. Thank you for taking the time to speak with us today. It was a pleasure spending time with you today.

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Indiana Nursing Home Neglect Lawyer David Farnbauch from the Sweeney law firm discusses pressure ulcers and the types of problems they cause for older people in nursining homes.

If you have a loved one in a nursing home that is bed bound, you want to make sure to check their skin to see if they are developing any kind of pressure ulcers.  Pressure ulcers can cause serious pain and problems for people in nursing homes. 

If you or a loved one has been a victim of elder abuse or neglect, contact The Sweeney law firm today for a free consultation.

1-866-793-6339 (Toll Free) 

1-260-420-3137 (Local) 

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LEE KELSO: With an ever aging population more and more people are going to require long term care in a nursing home facility. Despite the compassionate and dedicated care provided by the vast majority of nurses and CNAs who take care of the nursing homes, there are some alarming statistics about the numbers of injuries and deaths that occur in nursing homes. Recent studies show that a significant number of nursing homes do not have enough staff to provide adequate care for residents. Particularly in the for profit nursing homes. Joining us today about nursing home care in Indiana is attorney David Farnbauch, a trial lawyer with the Sweeney Law Firm in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Thanks for spending some time with us today David. It’s an important topic that affects a lot of people.  

DAVID FARNBAUCH: It’s a pleasure to be here today. 

LEE KELSO: David it is my understanding looking at your biography, that your law firm has a particular interest in representing nursing home residents and their families. Can you tell us how it is you began representing nursing home residents in legal cases?

DAVID FARNBAUCH: My career as a nursing home lawyer began about fifteen years ago when I handled my first against a nursing home that involved a very severe pressure sore or pressure ulcer in an elderly nursing home resident. At that time I had no idea what a pressure ulcer was. I was really horrified at the debilitating nature of that injury in this elderly nursing home resident. I began doing some research on the incidents of pressure sores, injuries, and abuse to people in nursing homes. I was really astounded by how many people every year suffer injuries and neglect as a result of being in a nursing home.

LEE KELSO: You told a little bit about nursing home residents developing serious pressures in nursing homes. Can you tell us about some of the other types of injuries that can occur when there is under-staffing?

DAVID FARNBAUCH: Well I think some of the more common injuries that we see in nursing homes are injuries from falls. Often elderly residents are not given proper fault, precautions and they suffer injuries from falls, fractured hips, broken necks, serious fractures from falls in nursing homes. They also suffer serious episodes of dehydration where they don’t receive proper fluids and they become dehydrated and their internal organs start to shut down from dehydration and they have to be sent to the hospital and often these episode of dehydration lead to subsystem deaths. We see many, many different types of injuries in nursing homes.

LEE KELSO: You know I have heard that nursing home industry is one of the most heavily regulated industries in the U.S. Tell you viewers about the government regulations in place to protect nursing home residents

DAVID FARNBAUCH: Nursing homes are heavily regulated. Most people who end up in a nursing home, there care is at least partially funded by medicare payments. Medicare has an activist, a very extensive series of regulations known as over regulations that govern every aspect of nursing home care. 

LEE KELSO: With all of the federal and state regulations in place to protect nursing home residents I’m curious as to why we’re seeing this big increase in the number of residents suffering injuries in nursing homes.  

DAVID FARNBAUCH: I think the biggest reason that we are seeing an increase in the number of injuries in nursing homes relates to the inadequate staffing that we see in many for-profit nursing homes. I’ve said many times over the course of my career handling nursing home cases that almost every case stems from inadequate staff. A nursing home has to have enough nurses and nurses aides to provide care to these elderly residents. When they need to be turned and repositioned, their in bed, or need some assistance in going to the bathroom to prevent falls, if you don’t have adequate staff there to help people get to the bathroom or be turned and reposition there’s going to be injuries, so I think that all these cases really stemmed from inadequate staffing.

LEE KELSO: What advice can you pass along to the family that is faced with having to out a loved on into a nursing home to reduce the risk that they would suffer farm in that nursing home’s care?

DAVID FARNBAUCH: I think the most important thing that any family should do to try to reduce the risk that something will happen to their loved one is to do a thorough investigation on the nursing home. There’s a variety of websites that are available to review to look at the track record of the nursing home to see if they have been sited by the state department of health and see if they have had claims and lawsuits against a facility and see what they’re ratings are. The other thing that families can do is simply do a thorough investigation of the facility. Go there, take a through look around. See what it is like. See how the residents are treated. Do a comprehensive search in your area. Take a look at multiple homes in your area to see is the residents that are there and if the families are satisfied with the care. I think that the biggest thing that you can do to protect your loved ones is to really check out the background of the nursing home. 

LEE KELSO: In the event that one of our viewers has a family member who does suffer serious injury as a result of neglect of neglect in a nursing home and wants to investigate whether there is a potential legal claim against the nursing home, what’s the first step?

DAVE FARNBAUCH: I think the first step if you were contemplating a claim against a nursing home is to contact a lawyer or a law firm that specializes in handling nursing home cases. These cases are a lot more complex than the typical personal injury case. I think any lawyer that handles these cases has to have extensive knowledge of the over regulations that govern nursing homes. They have to be familiar with the nursing standard of care. They have to be familiar with experts that testify in these types of cases. I would encourage anybody that is pursuing one of these cases to get in touch with a law firm that has some special expertise in handling these cases.

LEE KELSO: I’m sure that viewers must be wondering how much it costs to hire a firm like the Sweeney Law Firm to investigate or hire a nursing home expert to investigate and review the nursing home records. how much does an investigation like that cost? 

DAVID FARNBAUCH: It actually does not cost the client anything to have our office investigate a nursing home case. When we meet with a family, if we determine that there appears to be a meritorious nursing home case we will pay for expert witnesses to review the records and determine whether there has been a breach of the nursing standards of care and our law firm advances those expenses. If there is a successful recovery than those expenses have to be reimbursed to the firm, but it does not cost the client anything to retain our law firm to have us investigate the case. 

LEE KELSO: David we appreciate you sharing your insight on nursing homes. You’ve given viewers some valuable information and probably it’s going to affect all of us at some point in our lives, so thanks a lot.

DAVID FARNBAUCH: It was great to be here today.  

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