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West Explosion Offers Look into American Workers’ Dangerous Work Conditions

Military Contractors

Salon.com published a story addressing the dangerous work conditions millions of Americans endure every day. The article states the government documents 4,500 workplace deaths every year at a cost of $250 billion. Texas hosts “the nation’s highest number of workplace fatalities”.

West, Texas being the location of a catastrophic explosion is not happenstance. Texas promotes “antipathy toward regulations” and does not require workers compensation insurance be carried by businesses operating within the state. According to the New York Times, Texas has “more than three times the number of accidents, four times the number of injuries and deaths, and 300 times the property damage costs” as Illinois. The fertilizer plant where the blast originated had not been inspected by OSHA since 1985.

The author of the article, David Sirota, attributes this lack of concern at the number of workers who die every year and the lack of reaction to “a deregulated economy whose laws are written by corporate interests”. He cites those corporate interests as the roadblock for safety regulation and enforcement who uses politicians and their campaigns to ensure they don’t spend additional dollars on making workplaces safer.

NPR released an article recently addressing the large number of worker accidents in Texas and the demographics of the employees. Many are undocumented immigrants and exploited by companies seeking cheap, tax-free labor. This contributes to a corporate environment expecting optimized profits while maintaining low labor costs and the bare minimum safety regulations.

Doyle has represented clients and their families over the years that have been paralyzed, maimed, and killed as a result of poor workplace conditions. We stand behind them in their fight against corporate entities whose greed converts a workplace death to a cost of doing business.

Contractors and War Vets Face Severe Health Issues After Stints at on Iraq and Afghanistan Military Bases

Military

An injury on a military base can result in a complicated process that does not always lead to straightforward compensation. Military base injuries may result in extensive lost wages or medical bills that leave victims and their families at risk of suffering from long-term financial, physical, and emotional impacts. As such, victims of these injuries and their families often have no choice but to pursue a legal claim.

Fox News published an article on April 9, 2016, about thousands of contractors and war veterans who became sick after working at what they call “burn pits.” Burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan were created to burn various types of trash, including garbage, IEDs, plastics, batteries, dead animals, and human waste. The toxic fumes have led not only to chronic illnesses such as cancer but also to deaths. Soldiers at the bases were too focused on their greater mission to think about the repercussions of ingesting the heavy smoke coming from the pits as close as just 20–30 feet away from them.

According to the Fox News article, one base burned up to 147 tons of materials per day. These burn pits omit carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide, along with 1,000 other chemical components. Soldiers who have suffered from this injury on a military base have died from the fumes even though they are only in their 20s or 30s. The Department of Veteran Affairs has created a Burn Pit Registry list that includes 64,000 names from both active and retired service members. However, just because they are on that registry doesn’t mean the soldiers will receive any sort of acknowledgement or compensation.

The burn pits are just one example of the various types of injuries that have occurred on overseas military bases due to the negligence of military contractors. The cases include motor vehicle and road traffic accidents, malfunctioning equipment, toxic exposures, and various other types of injuries caused by military contractors such as DynCorp, KBR, Aecom, Halliburton, Fluor, and Arkel International.

Victims of such incidents are often covered by the Defense Base Act, a workers’ compensation system, aimed at providing medical and income benefits to workers injured on overseas military bases. In addition, these individuals often have claims of negligence against military contractors that may result in the ability to recover for mental anguish, pain and suffering, physical impairment, lost earning capacity, and past and future medical expenses.

Doyle Dennis Avery LLP focuses its practice on representing workers who have been harmed by negligent military contractors. If you have suffered an injury while working on an overseas military base, contact Doyle Dennis Avery LLP to determine what your legal rights are

Doyle Dennis Avery LLP has filed suit on behalf of a Texas doctor against Baylor Scott & White Health

Medical defamation

Doyle Dennis Avery LLP has filed suit on behalf of a Texas doctor against Baylor Scott & White Health alleging breach of contract, violations of the Texas Health and Safety Code, for his wrongful termination by the hospital system.  The suit was filed in Dallas County District Court, in Dallas, Texas.

In the suit, Doyle Dennis Avery LLP has alleged that its client essentially was a whistleblower regarding unsafe practices that were occurring at the Baylor Scott & White Medical Center – Hilcrest.  For example, Doyle Dennis Avery LLP ’s physician client routinely raised serious concerns about about: (1) extremely cold operating rooms in the ambulatory surgery center, (2) dangerously sharp metal operating room doors in the ambulatory surgery center, (3) lack of safety straps to secure patients to operating tables, (4) lack of fire extinguishers, (5) use of dangerous cleaning chemicals, (6) lack of computers, (7) non-English anesthesia consent forms, (8) lack of training on newly implemented pain medication protocols, and (9) lack of prompt communication about medical procedures.

The suit further alleges that its client and other physicians who raised similar concerns clashed with hospital administration over the need to remedy issues involving patient safety.  As a result, these doctors, including Doyle Dennis Avery LLP ’s client, suffered from retaliation.  Specifically, Doyle Dennis Avery LLP ’s client was placed on leave, without the option to return, and ordered to sign a performance improvement plan.  In retaliation, the suit states, the hospital ultimately terminated the physician, but failed to follow specific requirements that were required of Baylor, including the Medical Staff Peer Review process.

As a result, the suit seeks damages, including damage to the physician’s reputation, lost earning capacity in the future, past lost wages, and mental anguish.  Doyle Dennis Avery LLP ’s attorneys have experience in representing physicians, doctors, and nurses in this specific area of retaliation, defamation, and violations of the Texas Health and Safety Code.  If you feel that you have been the victim of retaliator conduct or termination, Doyle Dennis Avery LLP ’s attorneys stand ready to complete a no-cost analysis of your claim to determine your rights under Texas law.

Transocean Offshore Oil Rig, Deepwater Horizon, Explodes in the Gulf of Mexico

Maritime & Offshore Injury

Over a hundred offshore oil rig workers are suffering from an enormous shock and tragedy today after an explosion at approximately 10:00 p.m. yesterday evening on the Deepwater Horizon, a deepwater offshore drilling platform about 50 miles off the coast of Louisiana in the Mississippi Canyon area of the Gulf of Mexico.

The Deepwater Horizon is owned by Transocean but was under contract to British oil major BP PLC. It had been in the Macondo prospect since January, though on April 16 BP had applied for a permit to temporarily abandon the well at the explosion site.

At present, it appears that several people have been critically injured from the blast and several more crew members are missing after having escaped the rig on a workboat. The rig continued to burn for several hours.

The Deepwater Horizon was is a semisubmersible floating drilling unit, which was made famous when it drilled down just over 35,000 feet at another BP site, setting a world deepwater record.

Doyle Files Lawsuit On Behalf of Jones Act Seaman

Maritime & Offshore Injury, New Filings

On April 22, 2010, Doyle filed a lawsuit in Harris County district court against Kirby Inland Marine, LP on behalf of a tankerman injured in the Gulf of Mexico. Doyle’s client is a Jones Act seaman and the lawsuit is based on the well-settled law that Kirby Marine owed the seaman several duties which they failed to comply with. Notably, the injured Jones Act tankerman suffered a stroke but was denied appropriate medical care for many hours, in reckless disregard of the emergency situation of the offshore worker. The Defendant has compounded its decision to refuse to provide emergency medical care by also failing to meet the Jones Act requirement that the injured seaman be provided “maintenance and cure.” Doyle specializes in Jones Act and other Maritime cases and is proud to enforce this injured worker’s rights.

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