Personal Injury

A severe injury sometimes requires a hospital stay, which may or may not involve surgery. According to the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), the injuries that most often require a hospital stay include:

• Fractures. Hip fractures topped the list, followed by fractures in the legs, pelvis, ribs, and spine. Together, these accounted for nearly 40 percent of injury-related hospital stays. The average hospital stay for a major fracture was five to six days, but the rate of death in the hospital from these injuries was quite low - less than two percent.
• Traumatic brain injuries. Severe brain injuries also accounted for a large percentage of injury-related hospital stays. Swelling in the brain was often a major concern. The rate of death in-hospital for these patients is just above ten percent, one of the highest rates for injuries that require hospitalization.
• Medication overdoses or poisoning. Poisoning, especially by medications, is often a cause of hospital stays. These stays average about three days. If medical malpractice results in medication overdose or poisoning, a patient’s stay for another injury might be lengthened.
• Spinal cord injuries. Spinal cord injuries typically make up less than one percent of those staying in the hospital each year. However, the length of stay for a spinal cord injury is much longer than average - about two weeks - and the cost of an average hospitalization for a spinal cord injury is much higher than for other injury types. These injuries are also the least likely to resolve completely.

Hospitalization is a major source of medical bills after an injury. Even a simple stay of a few days can cost several thousand dollars - a huge burden for anyone who is already struggling to stay afloat in a weakened economy. If you or someone you love has been injured, the experienced New Hampshire accident lawyers at Tenn And Tenn, P.A. can help. Call us today at (603) 624-3700 for a free and confidential consultation by telephone.

Trick-or-treating is a classic source of Halloween fun, and one that makes this autumn holiday a favorite among children. Kids eager to collect candy, however, can easily overlook risks that may lead to injury. Help your family stay safe this Halloween by keeping in mind a few simple trick-or-treat safety tips, such as:

• Accompany children, especially if they are small. If you choose to allow older children to go trick-or-treating without adult supervision, designate the neighborhoods they may enter ahead of time and instruct them to stick together. Give older children a curfew time, and send a cell phone with them if possible so they can call if a problem occurs.
• Walk only on sidewalks, and cross only at corners and/or designated crosswalks. Never run into the street – in the dark, cars may not see you coming until it is too late to avoid a pedestrian accident.
• Only approach houses where the lights are on, indicating that trick-or-treaters are welcome. Remind children never to enter another person’s house unless they know the family, and never to accept a ride in a car, especially from a stranger.
• Inspect all treats before giving them to kids. Remind kids not to eat any of their candy until it has been inspected.

Accidents are a major source of child injuries and deaths in the United States. If you or someone you love has been injured, the experienced New Hampshire personal injury lawyers at Tenn And Tenn, P.A. can help. For a free telephone consultation, give us a call at (603) 624-3700, or call our toll-free Injury Helpline at 1(888)511-1010.

A carriage accident earlier this year left an Epping woman in serious condition in a local hospital. Now, the injured woman’s friends, husband, and horse farm have banded together to help raise the funds she may need in order to travel the long road to recovery.

The accident occurred during a hay ride event at Applecrest Farm Orchard in Hampton Falls, New Hampshire. The woman was working with a team of large Belgian horses and offering hay rides to the orchard’s visitors. During the hay rides, the mechanical equipment on one of the wagons malfunctioned, spooking the horses. The woman stepped in front of the horses to calm them and prevent them from stampeding or doing any other damage to people in the immediate area. While trying to calm the horses, however, she was severely injured.

The accident has left the woman’s husband, an armed forces veteran and three-time Purple Heart recipient with disabilities of his own, alone in the work of running the couple’s horse farm. Seeing that he was struggling to keep up with the farm’s daily chores and pay the bills, friends and colleagues founded the Ledgewood Belgian Farm Fund to help the family meet the costs and keep the farm running while the injured equestrian recovers from her injuries.

Severe injuries often result in high costs, and the impact of an injury can extend far beyond medical bills. Losing a loved one’s help in running a family home or business may leave others scrambling to catch up on the work that he or she once provided. At Tenn And Tenn, P.A., our skilled New Hampshire personal injury attorneys understand how an injury affects every aspect of a family’s life. If you’ve been injured, call us today at (603) 624-3700, or call our Injury Helpline at 1-888-511-1010, for a free and confidential consultation by phone.

A hazardous chemical spill near a loading dock at Exeter High School caused the school to be placed on “soft lock-down” and then evacuated last week, according to Seacoast Online. No students were injured, but two staff members were treated for symptoms of chemical exposure.

According to school officials, a custodian noticed the sulfuric acid spill while working near the loading dock. He reported a strong smell that grew worse as he stood in the area near the trash compactor. The local fire department was called to examine the scene, and students and teachers were put under a “soft lock-down,” a procedure that requires everyone to stay where they are until a dangerous issue can be sorted out.

Rescue workers searched the scene and found a bottle of sulfuric acid inside the trash compactor. The bottle had probably been mistaken for empty when it was thrown away, but it still contained some of the highly corrosive acid, which leaked out when pressure from the trash compactor broke the container. Students and teachers were evacuated as rescue workers contained the spill and monitored the area throughout the afternoon.

Chemical exposure can occur in a variety of places and as a result of many types of accidents such as construction accidents and automobile crashes, and cause serious injury. If you’ve been injured at work or school, please don’t hesitate to call the skilled New Hampshire personal injury attorneys at Tenn And Tenn, P.A. Call us today at (603) 624-3700 for a free and confidential consultation by telephone.

Hurricane Irene’s recent impact on the shores of New England left behind several injured people and millions of dollars in property damage. Most New Hampshire residents were prepared for the dangers, since we know what kind of injuries severe weather can cause. However, it’s also important to consider dangers that linger even after a hurricane has passed. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and the U.S. Fire Administration (USFA) offer the following tips for post-hurricane safety and injury prevention.

• Use generators cautiously. If you’re using a generator for power, never run the generator indoors. Instead, choose an outdoor location with good air circulation. Generators create carbon monoxide, a colorless, odorless gas that can quickly kill or severely injure people and pets.
• Keep grills and camp stoves outside. Like generators, charcoal grills and camp stoves produce carbon monoxide when burning. They are also a fire hazard, so keep them well away from buildings. Do not wear loose clothing or let children or pets play on or near charcoal grills or camp stoves.
• Check utilities before using them. Electrical lines, gas lines, and telephone or cable lines should be checked by a qualified technician if they’ve been underwater. Stay away from downed electrical, telephone, cable, and other lines, since they may contain live electricity.
• Take care with candles. If possible, use flashlights instead. If you must use candles, keep them away from any flammable materials, and always put them out before leaving the area.

Living after a hurricane often changes our routines, which can make it harder to spot everyday dangers. By using emergency equipment safely, you can protect yourself and those you love from injuries even after Irene has come and gone. If you or someone you love has been injured in an accident, the experienced New Hampshire personal injury attorneys at Tenn And Tenn, P.A. can inform you of your legal rights and options. For a free and confidential telephone consultation, call us today at 603-624-3700, or our toll-free Injury Helpline at 1-888-511-1010.

A Vermont man was killed in a logging accident recently as he was working with a team to cut down and remove trees from a site near Sullivan, according to an article in the Keene Sentinel. The accident occurred in a wooded area off South Road near Hubbard Road.

When the accident occurred, the man was operating a skidder, which is a piece of heavy machinery used to drag cut trees out of a wooded area. A large tree smashed through the cab of the skidder, striking the man. His assistant called for rescue workers, but the man had died of his injuries by the time emergency medical personnel got to the scene, according to the New Hampshire State Police, who also responded.

Investigators are still examining the site of the accident for clues as to its cause. They are not yet certain whether the tree that crashed through the skidder’s cab was the same tree the workers were trying to take down with the skidder, or if the equipment got caught on another tree, which then came down. The man had been an employee of the logging company for about three years.

Workplace accidents take a terrible toll on families, especially when they involve serious injuries. If you’ve been injured in a workplace accident, please don’t hesitate to call the experienced New Hampshire injury accident attorneys at Tenn And Tenn, P.A. We can help you arrange for worker’s compensation or hold negligent third parties accountable for their actions. For a free and confidential telephone consultation, call us today at 1-603-624-3700.

The Fourth of July offers opportunities to relax, have fun, and enjoy dazzling fireworks displays as we celebrate our nation’s heritage. Fireworks, however, can be as dangerous as they are beautiful. According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), two people were killed in fireworks accidents and over 9,000 were severely injured in a fireworks accident during 2010’s Independence Day festivities.

This Fourth of July, help keep your family safe by following these tips:

• Keep a bucket of water or a running garden hose handy in case fireworks get out of control.
• Never let children light fireworks or play with them, and never play with fireworks or point them at other people.
• Keep your body parts and others’ away from fireworks while lighting them. As soon as the fuse is lit, back up quickly to a safe distance.
• Do not try to re-light fireworks that don’t go off the first time.
• To prevent a trash can fire, soak used fireworks thoroughly with a bucket of water or a hose before putting them in the trash.
• Check your state’s fireworks laws to make sure the fireworks you buy and use are legal in your state. Only buy fireworks that are packaged for consumers and come with appropriate user safety warnings.

Fireworks against a dark sky make Independence Day celebrations magical, especially for kids. By practicing fireworks safety, you can help prevent a magical night from turning into a tragedy.

If you or someone you love is injured by defective fireworks this summer, the experienced New Hampshire injury lawyers at Tenn And Tenn, P.A. may be able to help. Call us at 1-603-624-3700 for a free and confidential consultation.

Parents do everything in their power to keep their children safe. However, even the most cautious parent can only do so much when a dangerous or defective product is unknowingly used by their child.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) recently “soft-launched” http://www.saferproducts.gov/, a nationwide database that collects consumer concerns about product safety. The database will be fully operational and available to the public in March 2011.

The new website gives consumers the chance to alert manufacturers and the government to dangerous products, as well as to share warnings with other consumers, by submitting reports of injuries or illnesses caused by consumer products. Reports can be made by filling out the online form available on the website.

The CPSC reviews each report and decides whether or not to take further action, such as issuing a recall of the product. The agency also sends a copy of each report to the product’s manufacturer, who may also choose to recall the product.

According to the CPSC, the goals of the SaferProducts.gov database include giving consumers a simple, quick way to inform the CPSC of problems; allowing consumers to learn about potential or actual problems from one another; and gathering information about dangerous or defective consumer products in a single, easily searchable location that the CPSC, manufacturers, and consumers can all use to discover and solve problems more quickly.

New Hampshire parents of children who are injured by a defective or dangerous product should strongly consider hiring an experienced New Hampshire personal injury lawyer to help protect their legal rights and options. The attorneys at Tenn And Tenn, P.A. have handled a wide range of child injury and personal injury cases and will fight hard to secure each injured client the compensation they deserve. To learn how the experienced personal injury lawyers at Tenn And Tenn, P.A. can help you, call 1-888-511-1010 today to schedule a free and confidential case evaluation.

Part of making Halloween fun for the whole family is preventing injury, including the risk of fire, according to the New Hampshire Department of Safety’s Division of Fire Safety. Since Halloween decorations frequently include lighted candles, fire poses a high risk during this holiday, which can lead to serious burn injury and other forms of personal injury. By following the below fire-safety tips, you can help prevent accidents this Halloween.

• Make sure costumes fit snugly and are made of fire-resistant material. Loose costumes are easier to drag into a candle’s path accidentally, and costumes that are not fire-resistant will catch fire and burn quickly.
• Choose costumes without elaborate head coverings, which can be difficult to remove in case of fire and make breathing difficult.
• Teach kids to “stop, drop and roll” if their costume catches fire. This helps smother the flames and prevent injury.
• Use flashlights or battery-operated electric candles when you decorate instead of traditional wax burning candles. Never let children carry candles or objects containing candles while trick-or-treating. Instead, give children small flashlights. Teach kids to avoid getting close to jack-o’-lanterns, bonfires, and other things that involve an open flame.

Aside from the risk of burn injury, parents should be particularly careful when crossing the street with their child or children this Halloween. In the past, pedestrian accidents have occurred far too often during this highly celebrated holiday. Child injuries can have serious consequences, which makes awareness of these types of risks and accidents of the utmost importance.

Carelessness or negligence may interfere and spoil the fun of Halloween by causing injury, and in the worst of cases, wrongful death. If you or a loved one is injured due to another’s negligence or carelessness in a New Hampshire pedestrian crash or another type of accident, you have legal rights. The experienced New Hampshire personal injury lawyers at Tenn And Tenn, P.A. can help you understand your rights and help you fight to hold negligent parties accountable for their actions. For a free and confidential consultation, call Tenn And Tenn, P.A. today at 1-888-511-1010.

Luckily, no cars were at the intersection of Mulberry and Pleasant streets in Claremont on the morning of October 22 when a freight train derailed, spilling some of its load into the roadway. The train’s crew also escaped injury.

According to the Union-Leader, the train stopped in Claremont so a railroad company employee could unload some of the salt the train carried. While unloading, one of the train’s cars shifted sideways and tipped, coming off the tracks. Some of the salt left in the car spilled onto the roadway. The only person in the area was a railroad employee who wasn’t hurt.

Train cars may derail for a number of reasons, according to the Federal Railroad Administration. Although a train car tipping due to an imbalance or shifting load is rare, it has been known to occur. Claremont firefighters remained at the scene until a crane came to tip the train car back onto the tracks.

Train accidents pose particularly high risks for pedestrians, car occupants, and motorcyclists. Due to their size, weight, and momentum, trains can do severe damage to a motor vehicle or person. The risk of severe injury or death is much higher for people involved in train crashes than for those involved in crashes with other cars.

If you or someone you love has been in a New Hampshire motor vehicle accident, please don’t hesitate to contact the experienced New Hampshire personal injury attorneys at Tenn And Tenn, P.A. Call 1-888-511-1010 today for a free and confidential consultation.