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Gosnell Trial Ends With Guilty Verdict And 3 Life Sentences, No Chance Of Appeal [VIDEO]

Philadelphia monster “abortionist” Kermit Gosnell was convicted last week of first-degree murder in the deaths of three babies born alive, then stabbed in the neck with scissors in Read More »

Gosnell Defense Calls No Witnesses, Judge Tosses Some Charges [VIDEO]

Judge Jeffrey Minehart offered no explanation as he granted a defense motion in part and tossed 3 of the 8 murder charges Tuesday. All 3 were for the deaths Read More »

Desai Defense Attorney Asks NV Supreme Court To Halt Trial Begun Yesterday

No sooner had jury selection begun in the criminal trial of former physician Dipak Desai’, then his defense attorney, Richard Wright, filed an emergency request with the Nevada Supreme Read More »

Jury Slaps HMO With $500 M Verdict In Las Vegas Hepatitis C Case

Shop Of Horrors Witness: Dr Gosnell ‘Beheaded’ Nearly 100 Live Infants

Stephen Massof, 50, took the stand as a witness against his former employer, Kermit Gosnell, 72, on 4 April, and told the jury he routinely saw the murder of Read More »

Study Says Up To 160,000 Injured Or Killed By Diagnosis Error Annually

May 22, 2013 lawmed No comments

Researchers at John’s Hopkins reviewed over 350,000 malpractice claim payouts in the U.S over the past 25 years found in the National Practitioner Data Bank. They found that the majority of these claims were the result of diagnostic error, often resulting in severe injury to patients and constituting the highest payouts.

The leader of the study, which was published in BMJ Quality and Safety, David E. Newman-Toker, M.D., Ph.D., an associate professor of neurology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, said “This is more evidence that diagnostic errors could easily be the biggest patient safety and medical malpractice problem in the United States. There’s a lot more harm associated with diagnostic errors than we imagined.”

The study only looks at incidents for which medical malpractice claims were filed and paid out. The true number of such incidents is estimated to be 80,000 to 160,000 patients suffering misdiagnosis-related injury … (Continued…)

Desai Trial: Doctors Casts Doubt On Prosecution Claim Propofol Spread Hep C

May 21, 2013 lawmed No comments

As the Nevada Hepatitis C outbreak murder trial of former physician Dipak Desai and nurse anesthetist Ronald Lakeman entered its second week a second physician took the stand and like the colleague before him cast doubt on the prosecutions claim that improper injection procedures led to contamination of the anesthetic drug propofol with the hepatitis C virus. Prosecutors contend that Desai ordered nurse anesthetists to reuse single dose vials of the drug on multiple patients. Propofol is famously known as a medication which supports the growth of organisms due to its high protein content, making it easily contaminated.

Dr. Vishvinder Sharma, a gastroenterologist that worked with Desai in his clinic 1994-2008, said he never witnessed nurse anesthetists reuse vials of propofol. He added that while Desai was a frugal man he did not place patients at risk with his penny-pinching. He described the anesthetists as well-trained professionals who were unlikely … (Continued…)

Gosnell Trial Ends With Guilty Verdict And 3 Life Sentences, No Chance Of Appeal [VIDEO]

May 17, 2013 lawmed No comments

Philadelphia monster “abortionist” Kermit Gosnell was convicted last week of first-degree murder in the deaths of three babies born alive, then stabbed in the neck with scissors in order to sever their cervical spinal cords. He was given two life sentences Tuesday in a deal with prosecutors that spared him a potential death sentence, and a third life term was handed down Wednesday. In exchange for taking the death penalty off the table Gosnell entered an agreement with the court not to appeal his conviction. Should he attempt an appeal his sentence presumably would convert to death, or his appeal would be denied on it’s face by the court .

The Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams released a statement Wednesday afternoon calling the case “arguably the most gruesome” he has ever seen. “I will not mince words, Kermit Gosnell is a monster. Any doctor who cuts into the necks severing … (Continued…)

Wolford College Nurse Anethesia Program Lawsuit Update

May 08, 2013 lawmed No comments

It has been over 8 months since we updated our readers on the lawsuit filed by former students against Florida’s Wolford College Nurse Anesthesia Program and Collier Anesthesia PA. You may recall that both the College and Collier have mutual owners and interests. Here is a “legalese” summary of the complaint filed in the case, titled Schumann et al. v Collier Anesthesia, P.A. et al., from court papers:

On June 29, 2012, plaintiffs Billy Schumann and Dustin Abraham filed a Complaint against defendants Collier Anesthesia, P.A. (Collier), Wolford College, LLC (Wolford), Thomas L. Cook, and Lynda M. Waterhouse, on their own behalf and on behalf of other similarly situated individuals for minimum wage and overtime compensation relief under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). In the Complaint, plaintiffs allege that they were employed by Collier within the meaning of 29 U.S.C. § 203(g) as interns who were provided no … (Continued…)

Day 6 Of Jury Deliberations In Gosnell Murder Trial

May 07, 2013 lawmed No comments

The Kermit Gosnell capital murder trial jury was dismissed early today after making a request for the testimony of former Gosnell staffer Lynda Williams to be read back to them. Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey Minehart dismissed jurors early, just after 2:30 p.m., letting them head home after the request, with the reading of the testimony scheduled for the morning in the courtroom.

Williams has testified that on Gosnell’s orders she snipped the spinal cord in the neck of “Baby C” after it was delivered from an abortion patient before the procedure had started. Williams said she saw the child’s arm “jump” when she cut the spinal cord with a pair of scissors. She told jurors she subsequently refused to cut any more infant’s cervical spinal cords after that because she found the procedure too unsettling.

Williams has pleaded guilty to third degree murder charges in the case … (Continued…)

NV Supreme Court Denies Desai Petition, Jury Selection Resumes

May 05, 2013 lawmed No comments

In a 2-1 decision on Monday, the Nevada Supreme Court denied the petition of Dipak Desai to suspend his Las Vegas murder trial. Desai sought a ruling from the court ordering a hearing to determine whether he is competent to stand trial.

The court said the record does not include substantial evidence that Desai is incompetent to stand trial and upheld the decision of District Court Judge Valerie Adair who rejected the motion for a competency evaluation hearing.The court also pointed out there was a prior competency hearing, and that an “independent medical evaluation report prepared more recently confirms the prior findings that Desai embellished the effects of his prior strokes, particularly regarding the profound memory loss that he claims.” The ruling was signed by Justices Mark Gibbons and Ron Parraguirre.

Justice Michael Cherry dissented, agreeing with attorneys for Desai that Judge Adair abused her discretion in rejecting the motion

… (Continued…)

Shop Of Horrors Case In Hands Of The Jury

May 01, 2013 lawmed No comments

Closing arguments in the capital murder trial of Philadelphia abortionist Kermit Gosnell wrapped up on Tuesday. After giving instructions to the seven-woman, five-man jury, Judge Jeffrey Minehart placed the case in their hands for 3 hours of deliberation before their work day ended. The first full day of deliberation began this morning at 8:30 am.

In his instructions to the jury, the judge said state law defines a live baby as one that is fully expelled from the mother and showing signs of life such as breathing, heart beat or movement. “That baby is a human being,” he told the jury. Assistant District Attorney Edward Cameron said in his closing arguments that witnesses testified that one of the aborted babies was breathing before its neck was cut, another moved its arms and legs and yet another made a whining sound.

However defense attorney Jack McMahon in his closing cited the … (Continued…)

Jury Selection On Hold In Desai Hepatitis C Outbreak Trial [VIDEO]

April 26, 2013 lawmed No comments

Prosecutors say former physician Dipak Desai is again faking his mental impairments and his “malingering behavior and constitutes yet another attempt to delay his day in court,” in papers filed with the Nevada Supreme Court Wednesday. This in response to an emergency defense motion filed with the court asking to have the trial stopped due to Desai’s inability to assist in his own defense. Desai’s lead attorney, Richard Wright, filed the motion with the Supreme Court on Monday, as District Judge Valerie Adair began selecting a jury.

Judge Valerie Adair put a halt to jury selection on Tuesday, awaiting word from the Supreme Court on their motion ruling which so far has not come. If found incompetent Desai could not be tried until his condition improved to where he was competent.

Wright wants the high court to grant him a hearing to question Los Angeles neurologist David Palestrant, who reviewed … (Continued…)

Gosnell Defense Calls No Witnesses, Judge Tosses Some Charges [VIDEO]

April 25, 2013 lawmed No comments

Judge Jeffrey Minehart offered no explanation as he granted a defense motion in part and tossed 3 of the 8 murder charges Tuesday. All 3 were for the deaths of infants prosecutors say were born alive at a Philadelphia abortion clinic. Owner and operator Dr. Kermit Gosnell, 72, still faces the death penalty if convicted on 4 remaining counts of first-degree murder involving babies he’s accused of killing with scissors after they were born alive, and the death of an adult female who died of complications from one of Gosnell’s abortions. Officials have said, and witness testimony has supported their claims, that Gosnell used a pair of scissors to cut the spine of scores of infants (possibly 100+), plunging them into the necks of the newborns, as his method of “abortion” for late term fetuses which he first delivered by induction.

The judge apparently felt he had not heard sufficient … (Continued…)

Desai Defense Attorney Asks NV Supreme Court To Halt Trial Begun Yesterday

April 23, 2013 lawmed No comments

No sooner had jury selection begun in the criminal trial of former physician Dipak Desai’, then his defense attorney, Richard Wright, filed an emergency request with the Nevada Supreme Court asking them to halt proceedings alleging Desai is incapacitated by strokes and other physical ailments and can’t assist in his defense. Desai has previously been found to be competent by the trial court after extensive examination by state mental health professionals. No ruling from the Supreme Court as of yet.

The 63-year-old Desai and 65-year-old Ronald Lakeman have pleaded not guilty in state court to charges including murder, fraud and criminal neglect of patients. Lakeman was a nurse-anesthetist at a Desai endoscopy clinic where health officials in February 2008 notified more than 50,000 patients to be tested for hepatitis and HIV after irregularities were found in sterile procedures which the state says led to contamination of equipment and the IV … (Continued…)

Jury Slaps HMO With $500 M Verdict In Las Vegas Hepatitis C Case

April 23, 2013 lawmed No comments

Jurors rejected plainitffs attorneys’ requests for a $2.5 billion judgment against the HMO that referred patients to the Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada where more than 60,000 people were potentially exposed to Hepatitis C and other diseases over a four-year period that ended in January 2008. But $500 million apparently sounded about right to them when they decided Nevada’s Health Plan of Nevada and Sierra Health Services, the state’s largest HMO, needed to pay for the failings at the endoscopy center in punitive damages to three plaintiffs in a civil negligence lawsuit earlier this month.

Lawyers for the HMO argued that it was Dr. Dipak Desai, the owner of the clinic, that was responsible for what went on there, however the attorneys for the plaintiffs took the position that because the HMOs did not reimburse enough money for the services provided the clinic had to cut corners…a rather novel argument. … (Continued…)

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