Toms River, New Jersey, Personal Injury Blog

Lewy body dementia is one form of dementia for which an early and accurate diagnosis is essential. LBD can progress more quickly than other forms, such as Parkinson's disease dementia, and those with LBD respond more poorly to certain medications for behavior and movement than those with Parkinson's or Alzheimer's. New Jersey residents may want to know how to distinguish LBD from other forms.

LBD can develop in one of three ways: as a cognitive, movement or neurological disorder. Those with a memory or cognitive disorder may appear to have Alzheimer's, but certain symptoms make the distinction clear. They include unpredictable levels of cognitive ability, attention and alertness. Alzheimer's is characterized by problems with language, calculation, abstract thinking and judgment as well as anxiety and depression.

People in New Jersey who are trying to understand their ongoing problems with their lungs and the ability to breathe may face issues receiving a correct diagnosis. However, by adding assessments for routine rheumatology issues, such as blood tests, to the process of diagnosing interstitial lung disease (ILD), doctors could help improve accuracy and prevent misdiagnoses. In the process, they could also reduce the need for invasive, painful procedures like biopsies or bronchoscopies, which can also have significant side effects.

When people have a connective tissue disease (CTD), it can often be reflected in the lungs. Patients may suffer from ILD as well as pulmonary hypertension, pleuritis, bronchiolitis and bronchiectasis. In order to diagnose ILD properly, several physicians must work together, including pulmonologists, pathologists and radiologists. In one study, researchers tracked 60 people who had been diagnosed with ILD. Each patient had a routine assessment by this type of team of physicians. After the assessment, each case was reviewed anonymously by rheumatologists, who made suggestions and provided input in order to revise the diagnosis in some cases.

Some New Jersey residents are the victims of medication errors when they are patients in hospitals. There are several errors that are fairly common but also preventable. It is important for doctors, nurses and hospitals to take steps to prevent these medication mistakes from happening so that the patients will be protected.

One scenario that may lead to mistakes is when doctors enter medications into the wrong patients' electronic health records. One study of this problem found that these types of mistakes happen with a frequency of 68 errors per 100,000 medication orders. This means that a patient has a 1 in 37 chance of being given the wrong medications.

New Jersey residents who work around machinery may already know what pinch points are. These refer to any point in machinery where workers can get caught, and they can include the space between two moving parts, between a moving and a stationary part, or between a part and some material. Any machinery with gears, rollers, belt drives or pulleys will have pinch points.

A few examples of machines with pinch points are plastic molding machines, printing presses and powered doors, hatches and covers. Pinch point protection is addressed in OSHA standards for agriculture, general industries, marine terminals, longshoring and construction. These standards cover both engineering controls and work practice controls.