Articles Posted in Personal Injury

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In my personal injury law practice here in Atlanta, I have had the honor of representing individuals who are in need of a transplant. The recipients of these vital organs know that while they rejoice in the gift, another family had to suffer a tragic loss for the organ even to be available.

Such a tragic loss occurred to the Dillard Family of Gwinnett County yesterday. Jhrarell Dillard, a fifteen year old junior in high school, died yesterday after eating a cookie that unknowingly contained nuts. Jhrarell had a known severe allergy to peanuts. Jhrarell immediately went into antiphalactic shock and died from eating the cookie. His parents, at a time that must have been excrutiateingly painful for them, chose to donate his organs. Jhrarell has apparently already saved seven other lives through donation of his organs. Truly amazing. I know those seven lucky families are rejoicing today in their gifts of life, but we must continue to hold the Dillard Family in our prayers as they mourn the loss of their son.

Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning is drafting an emergency rule change one week after the death of 2-year-old Jazmin Green, according to WSB-TV. My question, as an Atlanta plaintiff’s personal injury trial lawyer, is this: Why does a child always have to die first before our Georgia Agencies do their job? The job they were created to do in the first place? How many Georgia children have to die before Georgia Agencies like Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning (DECAL) or Georgia Department of Family and Children Services (DFACS) do what they are supposed to do, i.e, protect Georgia children?

The death of Jazmin Green was a horrible realization that these State Agencies are woefully inadequate and give “protection” of Georgia children lip service. Little Jazmin simply should not have died if DECAL had not been asleep at the switch. Yet DECAL knew of potentially death-causing deviations of the required standards by this day care center, Marlo’s Magnificent Day Care, as evidenced by DECAL’s own inspection reports, and did nothing. A civil wrongful death suit can be brought against Marlo’s, as it should be, for the wrongful death of Jazmin. But no such civil suit can be brought at DECAL due to sovereign immunity. We know, however, that a civil jury would do the proper thing to DECAL to get its attention and tell DECAL what it is doing regarding the safety of our children is not working. A jury made up of mothers and fathers would let DECAL know what it did wrong here, but, unfortunately, that won’t happen. The parents of Jazmin need justice. Her heart has now been sealed for thy courts above. The Courts here in Georgia need to render justice for those Jazmin left behind.

As an experienced Atlanta, Georgia trial lawyer, I’ve successfully argued numerous day care personal injury and wrongful death cases over my years of practice. Nothing is more heartbreaking and frustrating than a preventable death, especially if the victim happens to be a child. So when I first learned of the recent news that a 2 year-old girl died under the noses of local day care employees, my heart sank.

The victim was left unattended for nearly two hours in a van, where temperatures quickly soared to a sweltering 140 degrees. Confined by the straps of her car seat with no means of escape, the child was left to suffer a lengthy, horrific end to such an abbreviated life. Police arrested Marlo Maria Fallings, the administrator of Marlo’s Magnificent Early Learning Center near Jonesboro, Georgia and her staff member, Quantabia Shantell Hopkins, on Tuesday, June 21. They are both being charged with involuntary manslaughter, cruelty to children and reckless conduct. They have already been released on $35,000 bond. These charges certainly fit the crime, however, more action needs to be taken in order to send a message to day care centers throughout the state that negligent conduct is a serious offense and will not be tolerated.

There may have been warning signs about the Clayton County Day Care Center. In March, Bright from the Start, the State agency that regulates day care centers, cited the center for not documenting a field trip and the children who were transported, according to the report. The report itself says the regulation was only “partially met” but, really, it was totally unmet. The report states:

Jury awards MARTA lieutenant $700,000 verdict

ShareThisPrint E-mail By Bill Rankin

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Just when I thought it was safe to go into the water, it is reported this morning that a young woman has died in a boating incident on Lake Lanier and police authorities have charged the man who was driving the boat at the time with BUI, Boating Under the Influence. This comes right on the heels of my last blog entry in which I reported the good news that the Georgia Department of Resources had indicated the Fourth of July Holiday was safer than expected in Georgia, with BUI’s on Georgia waters as being down this year from last year. My heart goes out to the family who has lost a loved one in this preventable incident.

Finds Compatible Donors Across The Country

Read Comments (1)Recommend Print Article Email Article Larger Smaller Updated 1/12/2010 6:21:02 PM

Marc Pickard

Some of you may remember a blog post I wrote several months ago about Giovanni Santos, a young man here in Georgia who desperately needed a new kidney. Giovanni has been undergoing dialysis every day to keep him alive until a donor kidney turned up for him. Well, today is the day. Through the remarkable “paired donor” program, Giovanni will receive a kidney from a non-relative somewhere in Texas who matches Giovanni and simultaneously, the family in Texas will receive a kidney from Michelle Santos, Giovanni’s mom, whose kidney didn’t match her son’s but did match the person who needs a new kidney in Texas. Amazing, isn’t it? Please keep the Santos Family and their surgeons in your prayers so that all goes well and keep the Texas Family in your prayers, also. Below is an article published by 11Alive.com on the surgeries occuring today in two states.

You can learn more about the paired donation program at the Paired Donation Alliance. In 2009 People Magazine honored 20 individuals as the People Most Unselfish Heroes of the Year who created the longest kidney donation chain ever. Another amazing story!!

He’s Finally Going To Get The Healthy Kidney He Desperately Needs

The news of another train collision was frightening and unwelcome. This time in Washington, D.C., on the Metro commuter trains.One train rear-ended another on the same track which, obviously, is not supposed to happen and you can bet doesn’t happen absent someone’s negligence or carelessness. The crash resulted in the loss of nine lives and injuries to 80 other passengers.

How do you miss a full size commuter train on the track ahead of you?

Could the answer be the train operator was texting while driving? It’s too early to tell, but if it turns out it’s because the at-fault train operator was texting while driving, I won’t be shocked and I’ll say you heard it here first. When I first heard of this horrible tragedy, I immediately thought of the MARTA train operator here in Atlanta who was caught texting while he was supposed to have been operating the train. But a diligent MARTA passenger caught him red-handed.

Have you seen this video? http://www.11alive.com/video/default.aspx?playerId=newsmaker&maven_playlistId=1f23dc40ee67898d157716d17d3efded65dbd23b&maven_referrer=mrss&maven_referralPlaylistId=1f23dc40ee67898d157716d17d3efded65dbd23b&maven_referralObject=1138688802 It is of a MARTA train operator texting on his cell phone while the train is running down the rail. The operator is texting on his cell phone while he is supposed to be driving a train carrying hundreds of Georgians just trying to get to their jobs safely. Unbelievable!

Congratulations goes to Everyday Georgia Citizen Matthew Jones, who uses the MARTA subway train system to get to work and relies on the train operators to get him to work, and then back home, safely every day. Matthew spotted the train operator texting while the train was in operation on the tracks and took the smoking gun photo. Amazingly, the GM of MARTA says maybe the only thing that will happen to this train operator is a suspension. A slap on the hand! What will it take to insist on passenger safety? A train wreck while a MARTA operator is texting? Will that do the trick? We already know how deadly it can be for a train operator to be texting while he is operating a train, as evidenced by deadly train wrecks in Boston and in California (which I previously blogged about). Don’t we want to spare Georgia citizens that horror?

We should all be vigilant like Matthew Jones. When we see a MARTA bus driver or MARTA train operator operating his bus or his train in unsafe manner, we must report that to MARTA. MARTA buses are identified by a bus number on the outside. The next time you see a MARTA bus operator run a red light, or other similar dangerous behavior, call MARTA with that bus number and report what you saw. The same should be done if you observe a MARTA train operator texting while driving, or asleep at the switch. Maybe MARTA won’t do anything to the employee after just one complaint, but I would hope after more than one complaint the employee would get more than a mere slap on the hand. The more we do this, the safer our public transporatation will, hopefully, become. Be vigilant, Georgians!

Just like the Peanut Corporation of America in Blakely, Georgia, the Imperial Sugar Refinery in Savannah, Georgia knew of the dangers its plant exposed its employees and Georgia citizens to and did absolutely nothing. In an article today in the Atlanta Journal and Constitution, it is obvious the sugar corporation deliberately exposed its employees to the very real chance of death by ignoring an expert consultant’s report warning the corporation’s executives of the danger. Which brings to mind the question: What is wrong with Corporate America? Has corporate greed become so all important that dollars over safety is a corporation’s creed now? Or is it that the past administration of the last eight years has permitted Corporate America to thumb its nose at corporate responsibility for the sake of unregulated profit such that even when human life hangs in the balance, the Almighty Corporation gets by with murder?
It is clear that in the case of the Savannah Sugar Refinery, the fourteen employees who died in the explosion and the dozens of other Georgians injured in it were asked to sacrifice too much for corporate greed. These Georgians are left with nothing but inadequate workers’ compensation claims now as the Imperial Sugar Refinery is protected from the rough justice of twelve jurors in the Georgia Civil Justice System by the “exclusive remedy” of the workers’ compensation system. And that is a crime.