health care | FFXnow

Morning Notes

Published April 20, 2022 at 7:30AM

Traffic and construction on I-66 outside the Dunn Loring-Merrifield Metro station (staff photo by Angela Woolsey)

Two Hospitalized in West Springfield Crash — “Yesterday at 4:09 PM, units responded to three-car crash on Old Keene Mill Rd at Hillside Rd. #FCFRD used “jaws of life” to free 2 persons from one car. Both transported to hospital w/serious, non-life threatening, injuries. 1 person from another car transported w/minor injuries.” [FCFRD/Twitter]

Virginia Hits 14-Year High in Crash Fatalities — “In 2021, 968 people died in crashes on Virginia roads. That’s up 14.3% from 2020, when there were 847 crash fatalities. And it’s the highest number of annual deaths since 2007, which saw 1,026 fatalities.” [WTOP]

Teen overdoses draw increased focus to opioid epidemic in Fairfax County

By David Taube

Published March 31, 2022 at 9:00AM | Updated November 2, 2023 at 5:16PM

Fairfax County Public Schools

Recent drug overdoses by teenagers in the Richmond Highway corridor and emergency care statistics have led Fairfax County officials to intensify their efforts to address the opioid epidemic.

Hospitals and urgent care centers in the county have seen nonfatal overdoses rise in the last three years, from 232 to 324 and 354 as of last year. Most of the opiate cases involve fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that’s 80-100 times more powerful than morphine, while heroin cases are declining, the county health department told FFXnow.

Lawyer: Inova reaches settlement in case involving stroke patient’s death

By David Taube

Published March 8, 2022 at 9:00AM

Inova HealthPlex in Lorton (via Google Maps)

Nonprofit health care system Inova has agreed to settle a lawsuit involving a nurse who failed to monitor a Lorton patient as stroke protocol required, according to a plaintiff’s attorney.

The case involved a 72-year-old woman who suffered a stroke in 2019 and brain bleed in 2020. She was cared for at the Inova Healthplex in Lorton but fell onto the floor when she walked to the bathroom without a nurse, according to Fairfax County Circuit Court documents.