Georgia Trial Advocate

Batteries and child safety

Jarome Gautreaux — Tue, 15 May 2012 11:47:10 -0500

Dangers of Batteries: Every 3 hours a child shows up in the emergency room after having swallowed a battery, or shoved it in their nose, mouth or ears. Most of the batteries recovered are those flat, round batteries referred to as “button batteries.” They look like a coin and are found in small devices such as remote controls, key fobs, children’s toys or watches.

As a child safety measure, many devices that take regular AA or AAA style batteries require the batteries be secured in their compartment with a screw. This is often not the case with “button batteries.” They are usually not secured and are therefore accessible to children.

Safety Advice: According to information reported on the Today show by Dr. Gary Smith of Nationwide Children’s Hospital, the serious problem occurs when the battery becomes lodged in the esophagus. The moisture sparks what he called a micro current, which “will lead to cell death and eventually burn a hole right through the esophagus.” And all of this can happen within a short 2-hour period. He goes on to say that if a parent is not sure but even suspects a child has swallowed one of these batteries they should be taken to the ER immediately.

While there are no safety measures currently in place for childproofing these batteries, it is strongly recommended that parents take steps to secure the batteries themselves. One way to do so would be to tape the battery compartment, and as always, if possible, keep the items out of children’s reach.

For more information on this article you can refer to www.todayhealth.today.msnbc.msn.com.

Bicycle Safety

Jarome Gautreaux — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 14:22:07 -0500

As the weather turns warm, many of us start thinking about getting on our bikes and going for a leisurely ride. There are few things more enjoyable than a bike ride on a nice day. But bike-riding does pose some risks. The CDC has reported that 700 people are killed each year as a result of bike related incidents, and as many as 500,000 people are injured each year. This is just too many. Here are some basic tips to help riders stay safe.

Wear a helmet!!! This is obvious, but proper fit is important. Don't just assume the helmet is adequate because it is on your child's head. Follow this link at kidshealth.org to find out how to make sure a helmet fits correctly.
Stay Alert. Don't assume that motorists are looking out for you. Here are 10 tips on How Not to Get Hit By Cars from bicyclesafe.com. Please take a minute to review these 10 important and possible life-saving tips.
Be Visible. Wear bright clothing and avoid riding at night. Be sure to obey all traffic laws. Here's a link to a list of bicycle-related traffic laws at Georgiabikes.org.

Safe Products Website

Jarome Gautreaux — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 10:10:09 -0500

I recently learned about a great website that lets consumer do two very important things: (2) search for safety reports on products, and (2) report unsafe products. You can read about this website at The Consumerist and the website itself is part of the Consumer Product Safety Commission website.

I was surprised by how easy it was to find information about products at this site. I went to cpsc.gov and clicked the box labelled "Report an Unsafe Product" and then did a search for "toasters" in the search box. It returned 30 results, including recalls and reports from consumers who had experienced safety issues involving toasters. If I were shopping for a product, I would certainly check it out at this site before purchasing it. An example of good government in action!

Pool safety

Jarome Gautreaux — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 08:34:48 -0500

Pools are fun, but they also pose some dangers we need to be aware of in order to avoid injury. As winter ends and the warm weather approaches, most of us start thinking about fun summer activities like swimming with our friends and family. The risks of injury include being trapped in inadequate drain covers, injuries from diving into pools, and injuries from slipping around wet poolside surfaces. For example, the CDC reported that drowning is the second leading cause of deaths in children ages 1 to 14 years old.

Safety Tips: Here are some important safety tips to help keep your family safe around pools:

Install proper drain covers in pools and spas
BE AWARE - don't leave children unattended in or around pools - only a few seconds can be the difference between life and death around pools
Learn CPR

A website filled with great information and many more tips to help you stay safe this summer around pools is www.poolsafely.gov. My hope is that this summer will be safer than previous summers, and that we will prevent needless deaths and injuries in and around pools. Have fun, but please be safe.

Food Safety

Jarome Gautreaux — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 13:47:07 -0500

Most of us worry about the food we consume, and we carefully read labels to learn what we are putting in our bodies. Occasionally, an outbreak of E Coli or Campylobacter or other pathogen is linked to food, and we turn our attention from nutrition to the basic safety of our food. For example, sprouts have been linked in this AP story to an outbreak of salmonella at Jimmy Johns restaurants. This article discusses the use of hot water baths to kill isteria and other pathogens on cantaloupes.

These stories of otherwise healthy foods like sprouts and cantaloupes posing serious health risks made me start thinking about ways we can protect ourselves from these sorts of dangers in food. One of the best blogs on this subject is written by Bill Marler, an attorney who has handled cases involving food poisoning resulting in injury or deaths. Another great article from Consumer Reports on food safety can be found here in this report on 9 foods that should be handled very carefully.

It turns out that we can take some common sense steps to protect our families and ourselves from these types of risks. Here are some tips from these sources cited above to consider:

use pasteurized milk and eggs
make sure meats, poultry and fish are heated thoroughly
wash raw produce very well

I hope these tips will help keep you and your family safe.

Macon Tractor Trailer Wreck Sends 20 to Hospital

Jarome Gautreaux — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 10:12:37 -0500

A tractor trailer driver failed to stop at a red light and struck a school bus carrying children from Wesleyan College in Macon yesterday. Amy Leigh Womack reports on this wreck in her Macon Telegraph article. Thankfully, the injuries do not appear to be life-threatening.

Tractor Trailer wrecks account for a large number of serious injuries and deaths on the roadways. It is a matter of physics: a truck weighing 80,000 pounds travelling at highway speeds that impacts a vehicle with a family inside will very likely do terrible injury to that family. But it is also more than just physics; it is also a matter of driver error in many cases. This Injury Board article states that in more than 80% of tractor trailer collisions with non-commercial vehicles, the non-commercial drivers (that's you and me and all non-professional drivers) is not at fault.

As lawyers who represent families and individuals in cases involving trucking collisions, we too often hear terribly sad stories of people hurt or killed in truck wrecks because truck drivers are fatigued or not paying attention or are in a rush because their company puts profits ahead of safety. We want to do all we can to prevent needless injuries or deaths from truck wrecks. Please take a moment to review these tips for travelling safely on the roadway around tractor trailers.

Recent Case on Spoliation of Evidence

Jarome Gautreaux — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 13:19:31 -0500

One of the major hurdles we face in litigation is making sure that all relevant evidence is uncovered, analyzed and preserved. For example, after a tractor trailer wreck, the trucking company may send its representatives to the scene to analyze the wreck and take photographs and measurements. But sometimes a company or person may fail to preserve evidence, such as videotapes that get "lost" or important documents that somehow fall into a shredder rather than the file where they belong.

What is spoliation? Under Georgia law, the failure to preserve evidence can result in something called "spoliation" of evidence. Spoliation is the destruction of evidence or the failure to preserve evidence that is necessary to contemplated or pending litigation. If a person or entity commits spoliation, the jury can be informed that they may believe that the evidence that was destroyed or not preserved was harmful to that person or entity. This can be very important in trials, since most parties don't like the idea of a judge telling a jury that it may believe that party destroyed evidence.

Contemplated Litigation vs. Contemplated Liability: In a recent case, Watts & Colwell v. Martin (Ga. App., Nov. 29, 2011), the Court of Appeals drew a clear distinction between pending liability and pending litigation, and noted that it is only notice of pending or contemplated litigation that is relevant to spoliation. So a company preparing an incident report after an injury, by itself, does not constitute spoliation. In the Watts case, a door hinge that a property manager had taken possession of was lost and the Court of Appeals said that this also did not constitute spoliation.

What To Do? It seems more important than ever to make sure that "spoliation letters" be sent to defendants in many cases where spoliation may become an issue, and that those letters make it clear that litigation is contemplated, rather than just saying that liability is possible or contemplated. Of equal importance is the need and the duty to preserve all evidence so the jury can have all the information needed to make its decisions.

Keeping Your Home Safe When Using Space Heaters

Jarome Gautreaux — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 13:56:34 -0500

It seems like every year we hear depressing stories about adults or children (or pets) suffering a personal injury or death due to fires started by use of space heaters in homes. The National Fire Protection Association reports that from 2005 to 2009, 79% of home heating fire deaths and 69% of injuries from home heating fires were caused by use of stationary or portable space heaters.

So, what can we do to protect our families from the dangers of space heaters? Space heaters need plenty of room around them, so we should all keep adequate space around space heaters. Also, space heaters should not be left on while you are sleeping. A great list of tips for use of space heaters can be found at the Home Safety Council Website.

A list of recently recalled space heaters can be found on this page at the CPSC website as well. Please take a moment to review it to see if you might have a space heater that has been recalled.

On another note, readers of this blog will notice that I've been very late in getting it updated. I've been absorbed in starting a new law firm and have not been posting nearly enough recently. One of my New Year's resolutions is to blog more frequently, so look for more posts on a more regular basis to the blog, and I welcome all ideas for new topics readers would like to see addressed.

Dangers of Hot Cars: Another Child Dies in Georgia

Jarome Gautreaux — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 12:08:29 -0500

The Atlanta Journal Constitution reported today that a 2 year old child died after being left in a van at a day care center in Atlanta. The article by Alexis Stevens and Fran Jeffries also mentions that since 1998, there have been 509 deaths involving this sort of vehicular hyperthermia, also known as heat stroke.

Normally we think of the danger associated with vehicle collisions on the roadways, but this sad case is a reminder that there are plenty of dangers other than roadway wrecks involving cars, including backovers, heat strokes, and children being trapped in trunks without trunk release mechanisms.

An organization called kidsandcars is doing great work to protect our children from these sorts of dangers. Their website - kidsandcars.org - is a wonderful site to get information about these dangers and what we can do to protect our children from them.

As one example of a way to help remember that a child is in the back seat of a vehicle, one recent article recommends that a parent put a stuffed animal in the front seat as a visual reminder that their child is in the back seat. There are many, many more things we can do to avoid the needless deaths and injuries from hot cars and other dangers associated with vehicles.

Please take a moment to visit these websites and read these articles to learn how to prevent your children from becoming victims of these dangerous conditions in cars.

John Stossel on Lawsuits: Good for Him, Bad for the Rest of Us?

Jarome Gautreaux — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 09:46:10 -0500

John Stossel, host of "Stossel" on the Fox Business Network, likes to rant about lawsuits and lawyers. Seems he hates both, unless he's the one who's doing the suing. Stossel once interviewed wrestler Dave Schultz, and when Stossel told Schultz he thought it was all fake, Schultz slapped Stossel a couple times. Stossel's reaction? Filed a lawsuit. According to Eric Turkewitz's blog entry about it, Stossel got a rather hefty settlement.

According to Turkewitz, Stossel is the same reporter who once said that organic produce was worse than conventional produce, a claim for which he had to apologize when it was revealed that his research was flawed.

So why has Stossel, who was once a consumer reporter, now become a shrill hater of lawsuits (except his own) and lawyers? It's one of oldest reasons: money. The Washington Post reported the following about Stossel's switch: "...back in 1996, when he was giving a speech to the conservative legal group, the Federalist Society, someone asked Stossel why he had abandoned consumer reporting to bash government and trial lawyers. According to the Corporate Crime Reporter, Stossel replied, “I got sick of it. I also now make so much money I just lost interest in saving a buck on a can of peas."

Good reporters are wedded to truth and fact; In Stossel's world, both take a backseat to money. No wonder Stossel hates juries; juries often hold dangerous corporations accountable for their actions when the truth is revealed in a courtroom. He'd rather close the courthouse doors, for everyone but himself.

Websites for Trial Advocacy

Jarome Gautreaux — Tue, 03 May 2011 07:35:32 -0500

One of the wonderful aspects of my chosen career as a lawyer is that I get to actually try cases to juries. Learning to try cases is an evolutionary process, and things I did ten years ago I wouldn’t dream of doing today. As in every field of human endeavor, experience is a great teacher.

Fortunately, there are plenty of teachers out there who generously share their ideas and advice about trial advocacy. I thought that it might be of some interest to readers to share my thoughts on some of the websites and blogs that I review regularly as I try to improve my abilities as a trial lawyer. Here’s a short list of some sites I review for trial advocacy tips:

1. The Jury Expert – the bimonthly publication of the American Society of Trial Consultants. You will learn something from every issue. Great writers and content.

2. Plaintifftriallawyertips.com – Paul Luvera’s blog, where he generously shares advice about trying cases, especially medical negligence cases, which he has won with amazing frequency.

3. Trialguides.com – this is a great site for books on trial advocacy. Includes books by David Ball, Rick Friedman, Paul Luvera and many others.

4. Dayontorts.com – great blog by John Day, an accomplished trial lawyer in Nashville.

5. Winningtrialadvocacytips.com – good tips on trial advocacy from Elliott Wilcox.

In previous posts, I’ve mentioned several other blogs, websites and books on trial advocacy that I like. These five sites are also sources of good information and advice. Please comment and add your thoughts on other websites of interest to trial lawyers.

Safety Hazards in Your Home

Jarome Gautreaux — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 09:15:03 -0500

When we think of safety in the home, we normally think of things like the purity of our water, lead in paint, and other well-known safety hazards.

But there are other hazards as well that are perhaps less well known but nonetheless important. Men's Health magazine has compiled a list of 6 safety hazards in the home. Here's the list:

Poisoned Produce - produce can be become tainted by things like Salmonella that can be found in raw poultry. For example, raw chicken defrosting in the fridge can pose a risk of Salmonella dripping onto produce. What to do? be sure to wrap poultry in plastic wrap and keep it away from other items in the fridge.

Legionnaires Disease - the bacteria that can cause this disease can be found in water pipes. What to do? - every 3 months, turn up the water heater to above 140 degrees, and run all faucets for 10 minutes.

Mercury in Light Bulbs - when compact fluorescent light bulbs break, they can release mercury gas, which is a neurotoxin. What to do? Hold the bulbs by the base rather than the bulb when inserting or removing them, and put the spent bulbs in the original box or double plastic bags after removal.

Sponges - who would have thought the humble sponge was a potential source of problems, but it turns out, according to the article, that a used sponge can harbor up to 10,000 bacteria per square inch. What to do? First, DON'T put them in the microwave, as suggested by The Journal of Environmental Health recently, since there have been reports of dry sponges catching fire. A better idea is to simply put them in the dishwasher or to boil them once per week.

Furniture - the worry here is particleboard furniture, such as some bookshelves, because the particleboard may be glued together using formaldehyde, which is an irritant for the eyes and skin of some people. What to do? The article recommends applying a coat of varnish to the particleboard furniture to trap the vapors.

Radon - this is the gas that comes from decaying uranium in the soil, and it is the second leading cause of lung cancer in the U.S. What to do? Your home should be tested for Radon at least every 2 years. If found to be at levels that are a concern, a ventilation pipe can be installed to fix the problem.

As you can see, most if not all of these potential hazards have fixes that are relatively easy and inexpensive. I was certainly not aware of some of these hazards, and I hope readers will find this information helpful.

Safety in Rental Cars

Jarome Gautreaux — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 06:59:22 -0500

If you travel much, then you have probably rented a car. Usually, when you rent a car, you assume that the car has been properly maintained and that if the car has been recalled for a safety problem, the rental company has had the safety problem fixed. It turns out, according to the Center for Justice and Democracy, that we can't assume car rental companies are heeding safety recalls.

In their blog at thepoptort.com, the Center reports on the case of two sisters who died after the Chrysler PT Cruiser they rented from Enterprise burst into flames. The vehicle had been subject to a recall for a leak of power steering fluid that could cause fires.

A reporter for the New York Times, Christopher Jensen, has reported on these rental car dangers, and one of his recent articles can be found here.

Now for the soapbox: those who advocate for laws making it tougher to take companies to court fall silent about these kinds of cases, which expose the ugly truth that profit matters more than people to many of our nation's largest companies. And reporters, other than a few like Jensen, seem to sit idly by while our courts are relentlessly attacked by corporations and their allied interest groups. When will they wake up to this assault on civil justice?

Spring Safety

Jarome Gautreaux — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 12:10:16 -0500

Spring is in the air and summer’s almost here, and with warm weather comes lawn maintenance. We read a lot about sun, swimming and bicycle safety, but lawn safety seems all too often to be overlooked. Cutting the grass is more of a chore than summertime fun, and sometimes, in an effort to get the yard work done quickly, we forego safety.

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, each year approximately 68,000 people are treated in emergency rooms with injuries caused by power mowers (this doesn’t even include injuries from other lawn equipment), with more than 9,000 of those being younger than 18 years old. Injuries include deep cuts, loss of fingers and toes, broken and dislocated bones, burns, eye and other injuries, some very serious. In my practice, I have seen firsthand how badly a person can be injured by a lawnmower. It wasn’t my client’s fault that he was injured, but it confirms the need for people to be vigilant about safety when it comes to handling power equipment, even if you’re an expert.

I have found a website that gives an exhaustive list of safety tips for lawn maintenance. I encourage anyone reading this article to visit the website http://juniorbiz.com/lawn-mowing-safety-tips

Above all, remember this:

· Make sure someone knows when you are working with power tools in the yard. If you are injured you want someone to be able to call for help.

· No Child younger than 16 should use a ride-on mower.

· No Child younger than 12 should use a push mower.

· Make sure you know where children are at all times. They should be a safe distance from the area you are mowing and safely away from any flying debris, such as rocks.

· Wear safety goggles and sturdy shoes, not sandals.

· READ THE MANUALS AND FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS FOR ALL OF YOUR POWER EQUIPMENT.

Be smart about keeping your yard looking nice this summer. Think of all that can go wrong and take steps to prevent it from happening.

Texting Laws and Facts You Need To Know

Jarome Gautreaux — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 08:31:26 -0500

Deaths and Injuries Involving Distracted Driving

In a recent entry I led you to a website that showed you the tragic stories of children who had lost their lives as a result of distracted driving. Today I thought I’d share with you some of the nationwide statistics on auto accidents that occur as a result of distracted driving.**

20 percent of injury crashes in 2009 involved reports of distracted driving. (NHTSA).
Using a cell phone while driving, whether it’s hand-held or hands-free, delays a driver's reactions as much as having a blood alcohol concentration at the legal limit of .08 percent. (Source: University of Utah)
In 2009, there were 30,797 fatal crashes in the United States, which involved 45,230 drivers. In those crashes 33,808 people died.

* *Unless specifically noted, distracted driving includes anything that may distract a driver while driving, such as but not limited to using a cell phone, eating, drinking, talking with passengers, grooming, reading, changing the radio station, using a navigation system or watching t.v.

Georgia's Laws

So what are the cell phone and texting laws in Georgia? Currently, there is not an all out ban on handheld cell phone use while driving; however, there are some restrictions.

Bus Drivers and Drivers under 18 – Completely banned from using cell phones while driving. In fact, you can be pulled over and cited for using a cell phone without any other traffic offense if you fall into this category
All Drivers – Completely banned from texting while driving.* Again, drivers may be pulled over and cited for texting while driving even without any other traffic offense having taken place. *

There are some exceptions to these restrictions, which may be found by going to www.gahighwaysafety.org/textingsafety and reading the law prohibiting texting while driving.

*This information was obtained from the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA) at www.ghsa.or/html/stateinfo/bystate/ga.html

Accident related statistics in Georgia may be found at www.gahighwaysafety.org/statistics/overall.html

A Great New Blog for Trial Lawyers

Jarome Gautreaux — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 15:55:57 -0500

Trial lawyers have a great resource in the blog, wyzgaonwords, from Diane Wyzga. Diane is a friend and an outstanding storyteller and litigation consultant. She is passionately committed to the study of storytelling and the application of this knowledge to help lawyers understand best how to tell a story. Diane has been an enormous help to us in conducting focus groups and crafting stories to best communicate our case to juries.

Using Diane's work with us in focus groups, we have been able to reject certain stories that seemed plausible before we did the focus groups, and craft stories that addressed the points that really mattered to the focus groups. This has been invaluable to us.

The concept of storytelling is not new, of course. I had a philosophy professor, a man I deeply admired, who was fond of saying that there's been no really new intellectual discoveries since the Greeks. He was (mostly) joking, but we can read a fairly sophisticated analysis of storytelling in the ancient Greeks, perhaps most clearly in Aristotle's Poetics.

But it seems that law school, with its heavy (and probably necessary) emphasis on facts and well-defined issues, can sometimes dampen our enthusiasm or willingness to communicate through story rather than a "stack of facts." The art of storytelling is sometimes lost on us lawyers, and it's exciting that we are experiencing a renewal of interest in the art of storytelling.

For me, the study of storytelling is an ongoing, exciting and sometimes difficult process, as I try to create a story with the right perspective, the right sequence, the right point of view, the right beginning and the right ending, never knowing for sure if it is exactly right. Diane is a leader in the resurgence of storytelling as an important form of communication, particularly for lawyers. Please take moment to check out her blog.

Distracted Driving

Jarome Gautreaux — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 17:55:10 -0500

Most of us have heard the dangers of driving while texting or talking on a cell phone, but we do it anyway. That is, until we personally know someone who has been injured or killed by a distracted driver.

There are lots of statistics showing the number of people killed or injured by distracted drivers, but sometimes seeing a bunch of numbers can fall flat and the numbers can lose their meaning. To have a real impact, people need to see real life situations of sons, daughters, sisters, brothers, mothers or fathers killed or injured by a distracted driver.

The website www.distraction.gov lets you see the faces of people whose lives have been permanently altered because of distracted drivers. I urge everyone to go to this website, click the faces tab, and listen to each story. Each situation is similar in that someone was killed as a result of a distracted driver, but each one is also very different. You will not be able to watch these without believing that no one should be driving while texting or talking on the phone.

As a lawyer who represents people injured in auto and trucking accidents in Georgia, I’ve seen firsthand how families can be devastated by a terrible irresponsible decision by a reckless driver, or by companies allowing truck drivers to drive without regard for the rules of the road. Having seen such tragedy and being the father of two young boys, I want to do whatever I can to try to make our roads safer for my family and for others. Please take a moment to visit this site.

Does Your Smoke Detector Protect You and Your Family?

Jarome Gautreaux — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 17:18:07 -0500

If you are like me, you bought smoke detectors for your home trusting that they would protect you and your family if a fire broke out. It turns out there is some reason to worry that some types of smoke detectors are better than others at detecting fires in a home.

There are 2 basic types of smoke detectors - ionization and photoelectric. And 9 out of 10 homes have the ionization type of detector rather than the photoelectric type. MSNBC's consumer reporter Herb Weisbaum reports today in an article entitled What You Need to Know About Smoke Alarms that this is because they are cheaper and fire departments have given away the ionization type of detectors for years. But they may not be the best choice.

Weisbaum reports that several states and municipalities are now favoring the photoelectric type of detectors because they are better at detecting smoldering - rather than flaming - fires.

Perhaps the most important suggestion in this article is for people to consider buying dual-sensor models which combine both ionization and photoelectric capabilities. This is recommended by Consumer Reports as well. I am planning to switch all our smoke alarms to these dual-sensor models.

Back Seat Seat belt Warning System

Jarome Gautreaux — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 12:53:01 -0500

I have often wondered why more vehicles did not have that annoying "dinging" sound to remind the passengers and driver that someone in the rear seat had not bucked their seatbelts. It seemed to me that you would especially want this kind of warning system for the back seats since that is where parents usually seat their kids. It's hard not to put on your seatbelt when this sound is being repeated.

Now Consumers Union is seeking to have the NHTSA require auto manufacturers to have such seat belt warning systems in place. You can read the CU blog entry here. The NHTSA research on such warning systems is found here.

Hopefully this new rule will be adopted by the NHTSA.

Patient Safety in Hospitals

Jarome Gautreaux — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 07:35:09 -0500

As lawyers for people who have been injured through the negligence of others, we hear very often from people who got infections during a stay at a hospital. These infections can be very dangerous, especially for the very young, the very old, and people with immunity problems.

Find Out About Your Hospital's Infection Control

Consumer Reports has reported on new rules to make it easier for patients to identify which hospitals are better at preventing infections. Their article is at their health and safety blog. Consumer Reports had earlier reported on an investigation that revealed that nearly all these infections are preventable, including central IV line infections, which account for about 30% of the 99,000 annual deaths from hospital-acquired infections. Under the new rules, hospitals will have to report their infection rates. Here's a link to the site, Hospital Compare, that has the reports on infections. The report shows one hospital in Georgia that reported no central line infections. It would be great if all the hospitals in Macon and Middle Georgia could achieve this same result.

Patients Need to Know

Most of these infections, if not all of them, can be prevented with the use of a simple checklist, called the Pronovost checklist, found here. This checklist focuses on simple measures, like hand-washing and use of disinfectants, to prevent infections. I would urge everyone to make sure that their caregivers are following these simple steps so they can protect themselves and their loved ones from these infections in hospitals. Please watch the video above for information on preventing infections.