At this time of year, many Hollywood residents are recommitting to their health by investing in their fitness goals. Gym memberships as well as sales of health supplements and exercise equipment are usually pretty robust during the first few weeks of the year.
When you buy products intended to improve your health—whether they are gadgets or supplements—you expect them to enhance your wellness, not hurt you. Unfortunately, not all products designed to make you healthier are safe and tested. Some are sold with little or no oversight and some are made by negligent manufacturers who create unsafe products.
Injuries You May Sustain From Health Products
Unsafe health gadgets, including exercise products, can cause strains and soft tissue injuries, fractures, bruising, burns, and even fatalities. Unsafe supplements can be ineffective and fail to produce the results you want. However, they can also cause serious side effects, food-borne illness, allergic reactions, vomiting, shock, drowsiness, and even fatalities. Supplements can also interfere with prescription medication, which can be life-threatening if it makes your medication less effective or creates dangerous side effects from drug interactions.
What You Can Do
There are several things you can do to reduce your risk of injury from healthy products:
- Ask your doctor for recommendations of health products that work.
- Buy only from reputable sellers.
- Be wary—if a product sounds too good to be true, it likely is.
- Read recall lists and lists warning consumers of unsafe products.
- Always let your pharmacist and doctor know about any supplements you are using, so they can inform you if these products may interfere with any prescription medication you are taking.
- Always save the instructions of any health products you buy and follow the instructions carefully.
If, despite your best efforts, you are injured by a health product, you may face challenges in getting compensation. You may use the product at home, where there may not be witnesses to your injury. In many cases, these products are made outside the country, so holding manufacturers accountable is challenging. If you have an adverse reaction or suffer any injury from a product you have bought for your health, you will want to take these steps at once:
- Stop using the product immediately.
- Keep the product, receipt, and any packaging you have.
- Seek medical attention quickly, especially if the side effects or injury are serious.
- Get documentation by getting a copy of your medical records and by taking photos of the product, your injuries, the site where the injury took place, and taking down any other information you can remember.
If you have been injured, you may need to pay for medical care and you may need to lose time and work (and therefore income) as you heal. This can easily add up. If you have suffered losses after using an unsafe health product and want to pursue compensation as well as justice, you may want to consult with a Hollywood defective products injury claims attorney soon after your injury.
Filing a legal claim can hold liable parties accountable, and these parties can include manufacturers, importers, and retailers who were negligent. Filing a claim can allow you to seek compensation so you don’t pay for all your expenses out of pocket.
If you have been injured by an unsafe product, contact Flaxman Law Group at 1-866-352-9626 (1-866-FLAXMAN) for a free accident consultation with a Hollywood products liability claims attorney. Our legal team has more than six decades of combined experience, and we have already helped thousands of plaintiffs secure tens of millions of dollars in compensation. We’d be pleased to speak with you in a no-cost consultation.