My GP said he thinks what Discovery is doing is unethical, especially with all this heart rate nonsense... what about patients on beta blockers he said.
edit: @rob, do you have the full article from this?
Not sure why it required registration - this morning it was accessible...
Anyway - here it is - apologies for the long post.
A Stamford jury has returned a $14.5 million verdict in a civil case brought by a Greenwich doctor who suffered a massive stroke after his personal trainer reportedly pushed him too hard on an exercise machine. The jury said the doctor was 25 percent at fault, bringing the payout to $10,875,000. When factoring in offer of compromise interest, the plaintiffs' lawyers said the total award would be about $13 million.
In 2011, Dr. Chetan Vaid was a 42-year-old primary care physician in Greenwich. He had a family and decided he wanted to get into better shape. He joined a gym – Equinox in Greenwich.
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Torts
Vaid, however, soon realized that he needed assistance using some of the equipment. So he hired a personal trainer at the gym, Joe Dominguez. Vaid's lead counsel, Victorio de Toledo of Casper & de Toledo in Stamford, said Dominguez had not been trained properly on how to help clients use the equipment, in particular a rowing machine. During Vaid's fifth session with the trainer, Dominguez put the resistance setting on the rowing machine all the way up to 10, which is the most difficult setting.
"[Vaid] didn't like the rowing machine and expressed that he struggled with the high resistance," said de Toledo. "[Vaid] kept trying to turn it down and the trainer kept turning it back up."
De Toledo said the trainer wanted Vaid to do an "explosive pull." After he did so, Vaid did not feel right. "When he got injured, he felt it right away and told the trainer he had blurry vision," said de Toledo.
Dominguez told Vaid that he only had a couple more exercises to go. The trainer had Vaid do some pushups and bench presses. Vaid still didn't feel right, his attorney said. He showered and went home rather than go back to his doctor's office.
After eating a very light dinner with his wife and children, he decided to go to Greenwich Hospital. While at the hospital he was diagnosed with a right artery dissection, which is a separation of the layers of the artery wall. While awaiting transfer to Westchester Medical Center, the artery became obstructed and he suffered a massive stroke.
Following his hospital stay, Vaid spent an extensive amount of time at Burke Rehabilitation Hospital where he did a lot of cognitive and occupational therapy. Vaid suffered brain damage and his medical group was forced to let him go. Vaid later sued Equinox for negligent training, supervision, and retaining Dominguez as a trainer. They also sued the trainer individually for negligence. Vaid's wife had a loss of consortium claim as well.
"The case is about a big company that doesn't bother giving their staff the appropriate training on how to use their own gym equipment," said de Toledo. "They're too focused on sales and booking personal training sessions and not focused enough on making sure the training sessions are done safely."
Stamford Superior Court Judge Charles Lee presided over the lengthy trial, which concluded Feb. 23 during its fifth week. The jury deliberated for just under a day-and-a-half before rendering their verdict.
The defendants were represented by Catherine Nietzel and John Cannavino Jr., of Ryan Ryan Deluca in Stamford. Nietzel is on vacation and Cannavino could not immediately be reached for comment.
Read more:
http://www.ctlawtribune.com/id=1202...ut-Leads-to-145-Million-Verdict#ixzz42Q8DLmTF
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