Accident, Car Accidents, How to Be a Good Plaintiff
Pain Relief Without Opiates
NEW ORLEANS, LA – As any sufferer knows, back pain is costly and difficult to endure. But you may not know that injuries to the back are one of the most common causes of pain in the United States today, with an astonishing 80% of adults suffering from acute or chronic back pain in their lifetime! In addition to being one of the more common injuries occurring as a result of the estimated five million annual car accidents, approximately one million back injuries are sustained in the workplace each year. The economic costs are high: nearly fifty billion dollars are spent annually on treatment, and over 264 million “days” are lost from work each year when spread across the population of afflicted employees.
However, one of the greatest concerns today are the dangers of addiction or dependency caused by narcotic pain medication. A recent review performed by Harvard University focused on the rise of narcotic pain medication for lower back pain and determined that there is little benefit of long term pain treatment with narcotics, and a very high risk of dependency, addiction, or even death found with long term narcotic use.
Today, many patients are foregoing narcotic pain medications to manage their pain in a different way. Epidural Steroid Injections, used since 1952, offer a patient weeks or even up to one year of pain relief following a single treatment, without any need for narcotic medication. This is because ESI provides a dose of anti-inflammatory steroid along with an anesthetic such as lidocaine, directly to the epidural space surrounding the spine. The procedure is quick, involving minimal discomfort.
Injections can also provide the relief needed for a patient to perform necessary therapeutic exercises, potentially shortening the recovery period, and are used as part of a comprehensive health-care plan that will consider individual needs and problems.
As with any medical procedure, Epidural Steroid Injection is not without risk. Bleeding or even infection at the sight has been known to occur. However, complications and side effects are rare for most people. Your doctor will help you to determine the best course of treatment for your unique situation.
ESI offers the back-pain sufferer many rewards, while also helping the patient to avoid the high risks associated with narcotic pain medication. If you require ESI due to an accident suffered as the result of another person’s negligence, the negligent party’s insurance company may be called on to pay for the cost of your Epidural Steroid Injections, along with compensation for your pain and suffering. If you have been the victim of another person’s negligence, contact The de Boisblanc Law Firm today to receive a free consultation.
Legal Humor, Uncategorized
Man Requests Trial by Combat in Custody Battle
Mr. David Ostrom of Paola, Kansas, frustrated by a custody battle with his ex-wife, has requested the Iowa District Court grant his motion for trial by combat, as the insults and troubles he alleges caused to him by his adversaries are so grave that satisfaction and justice can only be found “on the field of battle where (he) will rend their souls from their corporeal bodies.”
Of course, in this day and age, gentlemen such as Ostrom rarely have the appropriate soul-rending instruments at immediate hand, and therefore, Ostrom further requests of the Court a 12 week continuance in which he might procure or forge a suitable katana or wakizashi sword.
Ostrom argues that trial by combat has never been explicitly legally banned. He would also allow his ex-wife to select a champion to fight for her. Ostrom suggests that her attorney, Mr. Matthew Hudson, accept this honor, but Mr. Hudson appears to have declined, helpfully advising that “a duel could end in death.”
As sensational as this may seem to some, the trial of legal questions through combat has been requested of courts in the very recent past. In 2015, a New York defense attorney, feeling himself dishonored by the allegations of his adversary, moved for the opportunity to dispatch the offending party over the River Styx. It appears that this request wasn’t granted.
While this might seem strange in Iowa, Kansas, or New York, in New Orleans, satisfaction through combat is well established in tradition, and was practiced by the finest and most upstanding members of the community. In fact, according to preeminent historical scholar Alcée Fortier, more than ten individual duels were fought on a single Sunday in the city, and more duels were fought here in the 1830s than in any other city in the world!
Honor, especially the honor of the French Creoles, demanded that a gentleman be prepared to avenge insults on the field of battle. Schools were established throughout Old New Orleans where the young sons of prominent families would learn the art of swordsmanship.
Of course, not everyone in the city believed that men should be permitted to engage in consensual single combat. Dueling was technically illegal in New Orleans, but as it was a widely practiced cultural norm, not many were likely to report a duel to the authorities. Also, there was a very good chance that the authorities themselves might also have satisfied their honor on the field once or twice!
While the law itself didn’t concern New Orleanians, deference to the sanctity of law was something else entirely, and it became common to conduct one’s dueling in places that wouldn’t offend or inconvenience the general public, nor flaunt the dueler’s disregard of laws offensive to his own honor. Famously, a pair of grand live oak trees on the Allard Plantation became a popular site for settling an affaire d’honneur. Today, the Allard Plantation site comprises New Orleans City Park, and locals and visitors alike can visit the spot, where one of the trees still stands.
With the recent interest in judicially sanctioned dueling, nostalgic New Orleanians may cherish faint hopes that one day, a motion may be heard in Civil District Court to permit the remedying of insults in the most traditional of manners: on the field of honor.