Woman Left Without A Forehead After Feet On Dashboard Car Crash

Feet on Dashboard

A woman is speaking out to warn others about the dangers of putting your feet up on the dashboard after she was left without a forehead for two years.

Gráinne Kealy was just 22 when a car she was in skidded on some black ice and hit a wall; her feet were propped up on the dashboard, over the airbag, and were forced back into her face – breaking almost every bone in her face.

Speaking about the crash, which took place on 16 December 2006, Gráinne said: “My boyfriend at the time was driving us through Borris-in-Ossory in County Laois to do a bit of Christmas shopping and I had my feet on the dashboard. It wasn’t something I normally did, but I had new shoes on so I knew I wouldn’t leave dirty marks on the dashboard.

“My feet were on top of the airbag and, I know now, they inflate at 200mph. The force of that meant my knees were sent back into my face really powerfully. I broke nearly every bone in my face. I had a brain leak [called a CSF (Cerebrospinal Fluid)] and I lost two teeth.”

Gráinne and her boyfriend were rushed to hospital where she underwent surgery to fix the leak on her brain and the fractures to her face.

However, just a few months later it was found that Gráinne had an infection in the bone in her forehead, so medics were forced to remove it in 2007. Gráinne then lived without a forehead for two years.

“It took a while to slowly go down,” she explained. “It wasn’t like I suddenly woke up and it was sunken in. It took a while, which probably helped me get used to it.

“For a long time, I was afraid to leave the house. I became a bit of a hermit. I didn’t want to go out and then when I did go out, I would get looks. I bought hats to cover it. I was also worried about banging my head.”

But, in June 2009 surgeons at Beaumont Hospital managed to reconstruct Gráinne’s face by fitting a ceramic forehead.

She said: “It was strange. I’m aware of it, but I can’t really remember what it was like before I had it. Since it was first fitted, I’ve had fat taken from my stomach and injected either side of it to plump it out because you could see the edges.”

Searcy man files lawsuit after Hertz falsely reports his rental car stolen

Hertz False Arrest

A Channel 7 Investigation earlier this month raised questions about the stolen vehicle report on a rental car that led to the officer-involved shooting of Bradley Blackshire in Little Rock last month. Since then, KATV has learned of a lawsuit filed here in Arkansas against that same rental car company, that tells a similar story.

Searcy resident, Jonathan Olivares, was on his way to Houston in March of 2018, when just outside Shreveport, Louisiana, he saw flashing blue lights in his rear-view mirror.

“They yelled and screamed – get out of the car, put my hands up,” recalled Olivares.

According to the lawsuit filed originally filed in Pulaski County Circuit Court by Olivares’ attorney earlier this month, it wasn’t until Olivares was handcuffed that he was informed the car his company had rented for him from Hertz, had been reported stolen.

“I had a valid corporate lease agreement – what I thought was,”

The Pentagon Has Settled A Lawsuit Over Allegedly Defective 3M Earplugs. Now Veterans Are Suing, Too.

3M Earplugs

A recent legal settlement has brought fresh attention to two of the biggest health problems veterans face.

The settlement concerned protective military earplugs that allegedly were defective. The Pentagon settled with the earplugs’ maker 3M Company.

And the two problems? Retired Army Brig. Gen. William Gothard of Fayetteville, N.C. has both of them. He said his 36 years of service have left him with hearing loss and a maddening condition called tinnitus.

“It sounds like a chorus of cicadas sitting on your shoulders constantly, and the less ambient noise around, the worse that tinnitus is,” he said.

Medical experts say this constant distraction can be so bad that it undermines relationships and job performance by making it hard to concentrate on tasks or conversations.

Gothard

Johnson & Johnson and Bayer to pay $775M to settle Xarelto suits

Xarelto

Johnson & Johnson and Bayer agreed Monday to pay $775 million to settle almost 25,000 lawsuits in connection to blood thinner Xarelto.

Each company will pay 50 percent of the settlement, according to The New York Times. The payment ends both state and federal cases — the New Brunswick, New Jersey-based Johnson & Johnson jointly markets Xarelto with Bayer, which is based in Germany.

Patients sued both companies, which failed to issue warnings regarding possible fatal bleeding episodes connected to taking Xarelto. Neither company accepted liability and actually won all six lawsuits that went to trial.

“Even in the face of meritless allegations, and even while winning in court, complex litigation demands an enormous amount of time and resources,” the pharmaceutical division of Johnson & Johnson explained in a statement regarding the settlement.

Bayer, J&J settle U.S. Xarelto litigation for $775 million

Xarelto

Bayer AG and Johnson & Johnson have agreed to settle more than 25,000 U.S. lawsuits over their blockbuster blood thinner Xarelto for a total of $775 million, court documents on Monday showed.

The amount will be shared equally between the two companies that jointly developed the drug. Bayer and J&J do not admit liability under the agreement.

The settlement will resolve all pending U.S. lawsuits over Xarelto, which plaintiffs claimed causes uncontrollable and irreversible bleeding leading to severe injuries and even death among thousands of plaintiffs.

Plaintiffs accused the drugmakers of having failed to warn about the bleeding risks, claiming their injuries could have been prevented had doctors and patients been provided adequate information.