Foods to Ease Chronic Pain

For those people who suffer from chronic pain, MSN Health recently penned an article about foods that may ease the discomfort associated with the disorder.  Some of the foods the article recommended are the following:

• Sources of protein that do not come from land animals. Some foods to try may include fish, such as canned tuna or salmon, as well as beans and nuts.  Fish specifically may be helpful because they contain omega-3 fatty acids, which can aid in pain associated with arthritis.   
• A wider variety of herbs and spices.  Some spices the article recommended were turmeric, garlic, ginger, and cinnamon.  These herbs are shown to have anti-inflammatory effects similar to the active ingredients in Vioxx and Celebrex.
•  Eat more healthy fats.  Examples of this category include olive oil, avocadoes, nut butters, and sunflower seeds.  Healthy fats such as these promote hormone activity that helps you heal after injury and repairs stress to cells.
•  Incorporate more plants into your diet, such as kale, whole grains, and all colored fruits and vegetables. According to the article, "A plant-based diet emphasizing whole (unprocessed) foods is like a force field, or sunglasses, protecting your lipid membranes and DNA from oxidative damage."
• Probiotics, such as those found in yogurt, may also help to ease the discomfort of chronic pain. 
• Drinking lots of water and tea, such as green tea, are also especially helpful in restoring the body's natural balance and helping the problems associated with chronic pain.

Attorney Doug Stoehr is a central Pennsylvania personal injury attorney.  For more information on his firm, please click here. 

Nursing Home Attendant Sells Stolen Pills

Nursing homes and their employees are extremely variable in terms of their level of expertise, cleanliness, and professional demeanor.  In some cases, the employees of the nursing home facilities are not there for the right reasons.  In a recent article by UPI.com, the case of a Pennsylvania nursing home worker selling stolen pills was covered.

According to the article, a nursing home employee in Windy Gap, PA was recently accused of leaving patients unattended, some who suffered from dementia, while she sold morphine pills stolen from the facility.  She was caught when police received a call from a woman who said she was approached by the worker at her house, who tried to sell her morphine pills.  The worker admitted to taking the pills and trying to sell them.


This case is just one of many that attorneys across the country come across in their practice.  Nursing homes can be dangerous places if not properly run and staffed.  If you suspect that you or a loved one is in a nursing home and is not receiving proper or appropriate care, it may be time to consult with an attorney.  Attorney Doug Stoehr is a central Pennsylvania lawyer specializing in nursing home abuse and negligence.  For more information on his practice, please visit our website.

Scam Affects More Than 200 Seniors

When the elderly population decides how they want to spend their retirement years, some choose to enter a nursing home and others choose to use at-home care.  For those seniors that use at-home care, many also decide to use security services and long-term care insurance.

Criminals in the Philadelphia area have also noticed this occurrence and used the situation to their advantage.  According to a recent article by PhillyBurbs.com, four suspects have been arrested for taking more than $700,000 from over 200 seniors as part of a scam involving home care, home security services, and long-term care insurance. 

An Upper Southampton man is among four suspects arrested Monday on charges of bilking more than a combined $700,000 from 200-plus seniors in a multi-pronged fraud scam involving home care, home security services and long-term care insurance.  The victims the criminals targeted spent large sums of money for bogus services.  The average age of the victims was 83 and most were retired school teachers.  Some of the bogus business fronts included housecleaning services, cooking and dressing, and home safety equipment. The suspects sold these services mostly by door-to-door cold calls, but more than one of the suspects had prior knowledge and work experience with health insurance companies and had access to those insurance databases. They used these databases to find some of their targets.  As stated in the article, "Victims’ requests for assistance often were ignored, delayed, discouraged or minimized in an effort to avoid providing services. Only when a victim or a victim’s family were persistent were a minimal amount of services provided." The bogus company they created, American Comfort Home Care Services, pocketed 70% of the revenue while only using 3% for actual services to their clients. 


Elder abuse and exploitation is a serious problem.  If you suspect that your loved one has become a victim of elder abuse, please contact Attorney Doug Stoehr's office for a possible consultation.  Attorney Stoehr is a personal injury lawyer serving the western and central Pennsylvania area.

Internet Phishing

In the latest issue of The Pennsylvania Lawyer magazine (May/June 2012), a very insightful article was included on the prevalence of internet phishing.  Internet phishing is another term for internet scams, which result in criminals gaining personal and financial information about users in order to take their money and/or their identity.  Phishing e-mails, such as fake bank e-mails or other solicitations, may also lead to the introduction of viruses into your computer system.  In the modern age, when internet phishing is becoming a more common occurrence, it is difficult to tell whether e-mails are legitimate or potentially dangerous.  According to the article, there are a few ways to tell whether a communication is real or fake. 

First of all, the IRS in particular will never initiate contact via e-mail.  Therefore, e-mails about a tax refund or impending investigation are not real.  Neither are e-mails saying that your tax payment was rejected.  Never click on any links within these fake e-mails, as they may introduce viruses.  Additionally, never give out your social security number or financial information via these links.  You can also file a complaint about these types of e-mails (specifically, fake stock purchase e-mails)  through the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission).  You can do this by e-mailing them at phishing@irs.gov with the subject line "Stock".

Attorney Doug Stoehr is a personal injury lawyer serving western and central Pennsylvania. For more information on him and his firm, please click here.

Whiplash Injury: An Overview

Attorney Doug Stoehr recently distributed a legal magazine via the local newspaper.  He also has copies of these magazines in area businesses, as well as in his office.  One of the articles in this magazine was written by Dr. Michael Drass and discuss whiplash injuries and treatments for them.

According to Dr. Drass, cervical whiplash is caused by a flexion or extension injury to the cervical spine.  This is most commonly occurs in rear-end car collisions.  In about 60% of whiplash cases, the ligaments and tendons are significantly stretched and/or ruptured.  Additionally, headaches also commonly occur as a symptom of this type of injury.  When first lines of treatment, such as rest, non-steroid and muscle relaxant medications, and chiropractic services fail, pain management treatment may be another good option.  Dr. Drass mentioned the use of radiofrequency ablation as a possible pain management option.  With this treatment, tiny needles are heated up and inserted into the spine.  These small needles make the nerve endings stop responding to pain signals and, therefore, eliminate or reduce pain.  About 71% of patients receive long-lasting pain relief after the use of this treatment.

If you are interested in receiving a copy of Attorney Stoehr's magazine, "Just Cause", please contact his office at 814-946-4100.

Brain-Damaged Children Receive Special Programming

Children are perhaps one of the most susceptible groups of people to suffer from lasting brain damage.  This is due in part to their still-developing brains at the time of an accident.  Children in the eastern Pennsylvania area of Berks County that have suffered brain damage are receiving aid for their injuries through a program called BrainSTEPS.

BrainSTEPS (Brain Strategies Teaching Educators, Parents and Students) is a school re-entry teaching program for both parents and families.  This program, used by the Berks County Intermediate Unit, works to be a go-between for the families and their school districts to help brain-injured children get the appropriate accommodations in school. 
Based at the Berks County Intermediate Unit, the program is a liaison between students and school districts to help come up with ways children with brain injuries can be better accommodated in school.  The program includes observing the child in his/her classroom setting, as well as setting up meetings with teachers at the school to explain the specific brain injury and how/what parts of the brain have been injured.  From those meetings and data-gathering observations, the teachers and parents can come up with the right accommodations to make the classroom a more suitable and appropriate place for that child's learning needs.   According to the article, BrainSTEPS is a program unique to Pennsylvania and is based at various intermediate units throughout the state.  It is free and funded by the state departments of health and education.

Serious brain and spinal cord injuries are devastating and life-changing. These injuries are especially emotional and challenging when they happen to children.  If you have been injured due to the fault of another and now have long-lasting spinal cord or brain damage, it may be time to consult with an attorney.  Attorney Doug Stoehr is a personal injury lawyer practicing in western and central Pennsylvania. For more information on his firm, please click here. 

Pool Slide Leads To Serious Neck Injuries

Companies often create products, such as cooking tools, toys, and medical devices that are later recalled due to resulting safety hazards associated with using that product.  Unfortunately, before these products are recalled, serious injury or death of multiple consumers often occurs. We often hear about these recalls through the nightly news or via e-mail alerts, but sometimes it is too late.

Recently, a young mother died in a pool accident relating to using a inflatable pool slide that was later recalled.  According to an online news report by Care2.com,  a young woman died after breaking her neck going down a Banzai brand inflatable water slide which had been placed over the concrete edge of a pool. Since the slide had partially deflated, the woman hit her head at the bottom of the slide and later died. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) recommended a recall of over 20,000 of the slides, because "during use, the slide can deflate, allowing the user to hit the ground underneath the slide and become injured. The slide is also unstable and can topple over in both still and windy conditions and carries inadequate warnings and instructions."  The slide was sold most commonly in Toys-R-Us and Walmart stores. Similar reports of injury due to this slide deflating also came from users in Pennsylvania and Missouri, whose accidents resulted in quadriplegia and a broken neck, respectively.



Serious brain and spinal cord injuries are devastating and life-changing.  If you have been injured due to the fault of another and now have long-lasting spinal cord or brain damage, it may be time to consult with an attorney.  Attorney Doug Stoehr is a personal injury lawyer practicing in western and central Pennsylvania. For more information on his firm, please click here.