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“A new simulator being shown today at Tampa Preparatory School is helping young drivers better understand the dangers of texting while driving.

The demonstration is sponsored by AT&T and gives students the experience of texting and driving, scoring them on their results.

It’s a timely message, with the summer break about to begin. The 100 days following Memorial Day are the deadliest time for teenagers on the road.

Even though the simulator is being displayed at a high school, it’s intended to give all drivers a wakeup call.”

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“New details have surfaced about the possible injuries George Zimmerman suffered the night he shot and killed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Sanford.

ABC News said it has obtained Zimmerman’s medical records, which show he allegedly had a pair of black eyes, a nose fracture and two cuts on the back of his head.

The medical records detail Zimmerman’s injuries, along with wounds to the hands and knuckles of Trayvon Martin.”

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By Bakari Savage and Scott McDonnell, Team Coverage | http://baynews9.com

“Putting together the pieces in the case against George Zimmerman: That’s now his lawyer’s primary task.

Monday, attorney Mark O’Mara received 67 CDs’ worth of evidence prosecutors have collected that led them to charge Zimmerman with second-degree murder for shooting and killing 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in February.

The new evidence was not immediately released to the public. O’Mara said he wants to redact information pertaining to witnesses of the shooting, including names and addresses, and that will take his team a few weeks to go through all the evidence.

• State’s Redacted Discovery Exhibit and Demand for Reciprocal Discovery

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• IN DEPTH: View all documents released in the George Zimmerman case.

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Shooting witness speaks out

A witness is speaking out after his named was listed on the list that was released by the prosecution.

Frank Taffe said he was surprised when his name showed up as a witness for the state.

“I don’t know, it’s just befuddling to me,” Taffe said.

He said he was taken aback because he said he is a clear supporter of Zimmerman’s innocence. He said if he had to testify, he would say Zimmerman became the victim.

“That George Zimmerman in a position in a volunteer role wanted to ensure the safety of the community he lived in and he became the victim,” Taffe said.

The state will use surveillance video from cameras mounted on the community’s clubhouse, but Taffe said they were too far away from the shooting to be an evidential bombshell. They might have caught Trayvon walking by, giving a timeline to the shooting.

“Other than that, I can’t really see anything more compelling,” Taffe said.

Legal expert, David Fussell, said the witnesses will play a key role in the case.

“You’re not going to have a situation where there witnesses that put the whole puzzle picture together and you can look at this and say this is what absolutely occurred. You’re gonna have different viewpoints and different perspectives, different distances that people heard things from or saw things from,” Fussell said.

New video of shooting?”

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“A judge has ruled that “Stand Your Ground” immunity does not apply in the case involving Trevor Dooley.

Dooley is facing manslaughter charges in the shooting and killing of 41-year-old David James.

The two were arguing over a skateboarder on a Valrico basketball court in 2010.

To defend himself against the manslaughter charge, the 69-year-old man claimed the shooting was in self-defense.

Hillsborough Circuit Judge Ashley Moody disagreed Monday, saying James was not a threat to Dooley.

The prosecution cited several witnesses who said James was trying to wrestle the gun away from Dooley at the time of the shooting.

Moody wrote,”There was no reasonable belief that deadly force was required.”

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By Kameel Stanley, Times Staff Writer

“One day last spring, Dr. Sanjeev Grover pulled into a Burger King parking lot near his home in Lutz. ¶ A former patient had arranged a meeting. The doctor got into the man’s car and handed over four prescriptions he wrote for the painkiller oxycodone — 240 pills, 80 milligrams each. ¶ Grover had not examined the man beforehand. That made the prescriptions illegal. The former patient gave him $2,000 in cash.

They met again and again over the next few months. Grover gave him at least 36 prescriptions. In all, more than 5,000 pills. The doctor got $10,000.

Grover didn’t know it, but the man was a Drug Enforcement Administration informant.

In October, agents arrived at Grover’s home and slipped handcuffs around his wrists. His arrest — along with several other doctors dealing prescriptions and pain pills — was announced by U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder in Tampa.

Grover lost his medical license. He took a plea deal and will be sentenced in a Tampa courtroom today. He faces up to 20 years in prison.

Once, Grover had a fellowship at prestigious Duke University. He was a university professor. He treated cancer patients.

So how did he go from being a respected doctor to dealing pills outside a fast food restaurant?”

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Source:

“ Southern California personal injury law firm Freeman & Freeman today issued a warning to social media users: “Don’t be your own ‘star witness’ for the defense when posting information on your Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, or other social media site.” Stan Freeman, a partner at the firm, states, “Now more than ever, plaintiffs have to beware of what they say and do when using social media sites. An innocent plaintiff can be his own worst enemy when it involves sharing information that does not need to be shared.”

As co-cofounder of the Martindale-Hubbell top rated personal injury law firm of Freeman & Freeman, Attorney Stan Freeman points out that it is now standard procedure for insurance companies to use information obtained on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube in their investigations. By doing so, he says certain information that is shared can then be used to discredit and reject claims filed by injured and disabled accident victims.

“Insurance companies are armed with sophisticated technology that can access information even when you believe it is secure,” states Attorney Freeman. “In fact, whatever you write or post can be obtained by the defense attorney or insurance company — with or without your knowledge or permission.”

To gain access to this information, Freeman says investigators will go undercover to “friend” or “follow” you, then read your blogs. If they can’t gain access by themselves, they will try to use your existing connections as a “Trojan Horse” to access your social media sites. They will then use any activities you post at trial to discredit and defeat your legitimate injury claims.”

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By Anthony McCartney and Ken Ritter

By Carl J. Flatley, special to the Times | tampabay.com

“It’s been a decade now since my daughter died. She was a beautiful 22-year-old woman who was taken from us at that fleeting stage in a young person’s life when they see nothing but potential, promise and opportunities to help.

Erin was about to complete her master’s in elementary school education and was looking forward to life as a teacher. We mourn her loss as if it happened yesterday, but I also often wonder about all the young lives she would have touched and changed for the better. Our lives reverberate that way: all the good she would have done for others and the good they would have paid forward. Had she lived, all of this would have happened.

And she should have lived.

She died of sepsis, resulting from a minor outpatient surgical procedure. Sepsis is a very dangerous, acute condition caused by a systemic infection, but death from sepsis is almost always preventable — if doctors take proven and simple steps to avert it.

Erin’s doctors did not take those steps: IV fluids, vasopressor drugs to increase blood pressure, and, most important, antibiotics. This simple process has saved thousands of lives in hospitals that use it. But believe it or not, most U.S. hospitals have no sepsis protocol.

Since Erin died 10 years ago, sepsis has killed more than 2.5 million others in the United States alone. Many other millions have suffered from amputations, post sepsis organ problems and cognitive issues. We lose more than 700 people every day, which is like a Airbus A380 crashing every 19 hours.

How long would the public allow that to continue? Where is the urgency and government support? Can you imagine the uproar that would be going on?

We’ve been here before. Cardiac arrest was once treated in a wide variety of ways with a wide range of outcomes. That’s been changed for the better. Today, every critical care clinician in every hospital, nursing home, urgent care and ambulance crew instinctively understands the call to action: “Code Blue.”

Those two simple words trigger a reflexive series of interventions that have saved untold numbers of lives from cardiac arrest worldwide.

A “Code Sepsis” is long overdue. We know what steps to take — we just all need to be on the same page to implement these steps nationwide.

Part of the problem is the mystery that shrouds sepsis. Many don’t know what it is. Many think it’s an exotic condition caused by some rare infection, but chances are, you know someone who died of sepsis. In 2009, 1.6 million people were admitted to U.S. hospitals for sepsis. Often, these patients are being treated for an underlying condition such as cancer, pneumonia, or other conditions that suppress their immunity.

One of every six patients who develop sepsis does not survive — it’s hard to say for sure, though, because hospitals do not have to report their sepsis fatalities. Those who survive often suffer from cognitive disabilities and lower limb amputations. This deadly acute condition kills more Americans each year than prostate cancer, breast cancer and lung cancer combined.

The numbers are staggering. In fact, this is part of the problem. Big numbers overwhelm us and disconnect us.

It’s the small numbers and the personal stories that break through. So, I’m willing to bet that you know a person who died of sepsis. If you know someone who died of cancer, they probably actually died of sepsis. If you know someone who died of pneumonia, sepsis is likely what killed them. If you know someone who died of an infection, H1N1, a urinary tract infection, or postsurgical infection, there’s a very good chance they could have survived their underlying condition if they were treated properly to survive sepsis.

Ironically, I developed sepsis following surgery several years ago. I must admit, until my daughter died, I had never heard of sepsis — even after a career as a dental surgeon. When I realized I had the symptoms of sepsis following that surgery, I refused to let the hospital discharge me. It was my own daughter’s death that taught me a lesson that ultimately saved my life. She was looking out for me.

At her bedside on that dreadful day in 2002, she asked me to help her, but I couldn’t. All I could do was make myself a promise when she left us that early April morning: “No more Erins!”

We started the Sepsis Alliance in order to change clinical practice in the United States so that there would be “No more Erins.” No more senseless loss of life. I’ve spoken to thousands of family members who lost loved ones unnecessarily to sepsis.

These people should have lived, should have been at baptisms, graduations and weddings of their grandchildren. There’s simply no good reason why they were robbed of these moments.”

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By Curtis Krueger, Times Staff Writer

“A judge urged lawyers to complete their last-minute work so a murder trial can proceed as scheduled against Arunya Rouch, the woman accused of murdering a co-worker in 2010 outside a Tarpon Springs Publix.

“It’s time to try the case,” Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge Timothy Peters said, noting that the trial also had been rescheduled previously.

Rouch, 43, is scheduled to go on trial June 12 on charges stemming from the murder of her co-worker Gregory Janowski and the attempted murder of others inside the store.

On Monday, Assistant State Attorney Fred Schaub said a psychiatrist hired by prosecutors recently interviewed Rouch at the Pinellas County Jail. Defense attorney George Tragos said he wanted to see the psychiatrist’s report and interview her himself before the trial.

The opinions of that mental health expert and others will be a key element of the trial, because defense attorneys have announced they are seeking to have Rouch found not guilty by reason of insanity.

That means defense attorneys will call experts during the trial who will testify about whether Rouch was suffering from a psychotic episode at the time of the shooting — one so severe that she didn’t know it was wrong to shoot a gun at people.

But prosecutors also have the right to call their own experts, including the psychiatrist who evaluated Rouch at the jail recently.

Rouch is accused of shooting Janowski, whom she blamed for getting her fired from her job in Publix’s seafood department. Authorities say Rouch was fired for threatening Janowski, who had reported her to management for violating a company policy.”

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By Scott McDonnell, Reporter | baynews9.com

“The case against George Zimmerman is one of the biggest media events happening around the county.

But the case of the neighborhood watchman who shot an unarmed black teenager may also be monumental inside the courtroom.

The Trayvon Martin shooting has already spurred independent investigations into the Stand Your Ground statute.

It’s also charting new territory when it comes to social media.

It’s likely the case against George Zimmerman will have a major legal significance.

“I do think it’s very likely if George Zimmerman is found not guilty that there is going to a strong push to repeal this law in the legislature,” said Assistant Professor Elizabeth Megale at the Barry School of Law.

Megale says the future of the Stand Your Ground statute will most likely run parallel with the fate of George Zimmerman. Megale says the George Zimmerman case has already come up in the classes she teaches.

The case against George Zimmerman may be precedent-setting in another area, social media. Zimmerman’s attorney, Mark O’Mara is heading into uncharted territory with a website and twitter account set up for his client. The website offers and opportunity for donations and updates the public.

Attorney Joy Ragan says this aspect of the case will no doubt draw legal discourse.”

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