Columbus Personal Injury & Wrongful Death Legal Blog

When parents and their children in Ohio receive a diagnosis of pediatric brain cancer, the future can be frightening. Because treatment is so critical to saving children's lives and preventing the disease from advancing, a correct diagnosis is essential. However, scientific advances have revealed that many childhood brain cancer diagnoses are actually incorrect. One kind of tumor is frequently identified as another, and the differences are not detectable without newer, specialized tests that examine the molecular profiles of cancerous tumors.

Researchers urged pediatric cancer specialists to adopt the newer testing protocols, called DNA methylation profiling, in order to avoid misdiagnosis and provide correct treatment. They also recommended that family members insist on this type of testing for children with pediatric brain cancer. The tumors in question, called CNS-PNETs, have traditionally been diagnosed based on where they are found in the brain and the appearance of their cells under a microscope. However, when a molecular profile was created, tumors that looked identical under microscopic examination were revealed to be entirely different types of brain cancer.

An Ohio judge dismissed Facebook from a lawsuit filed by the family of a man whose killer shot him and shared the video on the social media site. The victim's family had accused Facebook of acting negligently for not spotting and then reporting the posted threats by the shooter.

The shooter shared the video of himself shooting the 74-year-old man on a street in Cleveland. His video remained live on the site for around two hours, and it was shared and viewed millions of times during that period. A few days later, the shooter also shot and killed himself following a police chase in Pennsylvania.

In 2017, the total number of people who died in traffic accidents decreased 1.8 percent from 2016's numbers, going from 37,806 to 37,133 fatalities. Passenger vehicle, motorcyclist and pedestrian deaths saw a respective decline of 1.4, 3.1 and 1.7 percent. Speeding-related deaths dropped 5.6 percent and bicyclist deaths 8.1 percent. Ohio residents will agree that these are positive developments.

One factor, though, bucked the overall downward trend: large truck traffic fatalities. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has explained as much in its report on 2017 car crash trends, which was culled from the data in its Fatality Analysis Reporting System.

Doctors in Ohio and around the country may have a hard time diagnosing Lewy body dementia (LBD). However, it is important that an accurate diagnosis be made as soon as possible. This is because an early diagnosis may allow for treatment that could provide a patient with a greater quality of life for a longer period of time. It may also provide a greater quality of life for those who are tasked with caring for LBD patients.

In some cases, individuals who have LBD will be diagnosed with either Alzheimer's disease or with Parkinson's disease. However, LBD is different than Alzheimer's disease because symptoms may include varying levels of cognitive ability as well as REM sleep disorders. Those who initially present with a movement disorder will typically develop symptoms in line with a diagnosis of dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB). It is possible that an individual will first present with symptoms consistent with DLB.