September, 2014 - Madalon Law

Florida is by far one of the most popular vacation and tourism destinations. However, when a person goes on vacation, the last thing he or she expects is to suffer a terrible injury while staying in a hotel or resort. Under Florida statutory law, a hotel may be liable for any injuries that a hotel guest received as a result of a slip and fall on the hotel premises, if the injured guest can prove that the dangerous condition existed for a period of time enough for the hotel to know about it. In addition to the statutory law, Florida common law comes from judicial decisions in the cases where hotels were sued as a result of slip and falls.

According to Florida common law, the individual or entity who owns or operates a hotel has a duty to protect its guests. It means that, by law, the owners or operators of the hotels must continuously keep their premises, buildings, appliances, and anything else, related to daily operations of the hotel, in a safe condition in order to avoid injuries to their guest who pay to stay on the premises and assume that areas that the guests usually use, such as rooms, pools, lobbies, spa, restaurants, etc., are safe to use. A few examples of dangerous conditions on the premises are obstructed steps and passageways; defective furniture; bath tubs, showers, and stairs without non-slip protection; pool areas; liquid substances spilled on the premises; and other defective conditions.
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Generally speaking most of us have used a patch in one form or another, maybe a nicotine patch to aid in a smoking cessation program, maybe a birth control patch to aid in contraception, or maybe more commonly an over the counter Icy-Hot patch for the temporary relief of an ache or muscular pain. All of them, for the most part, are used without any issues, so when a physician prescribes a patient a painkiller patch it may not quite register that the relief we are seeking can lead to addiction or even death.

When applying these painkillers patches the process itself is very much the same as other patches not in the same class as these are, one applies the patch to ones skin and the result should be temporary pain relief that could last usually 12 or 24 hours depending on the prescription and potency of such prescription.

The effects in some patients are dizziness, sleepiness, drowsiness, nausea, constipation, just to name a few. Other than the potential side effects the application in of itself is very much the same as any other over the counter patch with a substantial difference being death. When one applies these painkiller patches the last thing on a patients mind is the fact that it may be their last application because death could be the result of such an innocent act as just applying a patch.
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