Connecticut Personal Injury Law Blog

 Vaccine researchers have reported that pregnant women who got flu shots may be at higher risk of miscarriage. The unexpected and unexplained findings naturally create anxieties for OB-GYN practitioners. On the one hand, they want to keep their patients safe and informed. But they worry the news will encourage the “anti-vaxxer” movement, putting women and their babies at risk for influenza and other life-threatening diseases if they stop all vaccinations.

For now, there is no change in the recommendation that pregnant women get flu shots. The study contradicts previous research and so far researchers have no medical explanation for why the flu vaccine would trigger miscarriages. There will certainly be follow-up studies to determine if the risk is real and what it might mean for pregnant moms and immunizations.

In 2016, a self-driving Tesla automobile collided with an 18-wheeler, killing the “robot” car’s human occupant. The National Transportation Safety Board has concluded its investigation of the accident, believed to the world’s first fatality involving an autonomous vehicle.

The crash confirmed the fears of people who are reluctant to trust their lives to self-driving cars and trucks. Yet the NTSB’s final report places the blame with the truck driver, the Tesla driver who was killed, and the Tesla company. The self-driving technology itself did not necessarily fail.

Sometimes everyone is so focused on the baby that they overlook serious threats to the mother’s health. Every year, about 800 U.S. women die from complications of pregnancy and childbirth, and another 65,000 suffer near-death medical emergencies. About half of these calamities occur after the baby is born.

Many moms who lived to tell the tale say they were not properly educated on the risks or the signs of life-threatening conditions. Research suggests that many of the nurses who should be teaching this are not adequately trained on maternal health care.

For decades Connecticut was characterized as a commuter state, taking the trains and highways daily into New York.

The truth is, most of us work right here. Far from being a pleasant bedroom region, residents of our state do battle with trucks and other commercial vehicles every day on our interstates and freeways.