Bad Behavior - Law Med Blog

Mountain State University Nursing School Loses State Accreditation

February 22, 2012 lawmed No comments

It has been like watching a train crash in slow motion. The outcome inevitable. The passengers: the nursing students…not sure how injured they would be once their world stopped spinning. And now they know.

On the heels of a visit from representatives of the Higher Learning Commission sent to campus to decide whether the institution should remain accredited as a whole, Mountain State University in Beckley, West Virginia, received more bad news signaling the end of its nursing school. On Thursday, February 18th, the West Virginia Board of Examiners for Registered Nurses announced effective August 31, 2012, the MSU school of nursing will no longer be accredited by the state.

The board placed the university’s nursing program on provisional accreditation in November 2010, and in December 2011, the board reviewed the accreditation after four nursing faculty members headed for the exit. Without such accreditation, the school cannot produce graduates eligible … (Continued…)

Settlements Reached In 41 Las Vegas Hepatitis C Lawsuits

February 22, 2012 lawmed No comments

Clark County District Court Judge Jennifer Togliatti has approved settlements involving Teva Parenteral Medicines Inc. and other companies after nine days of negotiations which were brought about by a Nevada Supreme Court order. The state high court dubbed the talks a “global settlement conference.”

Terms of the settlements were not immediately made public, however Denise Bradley, a spokeswoman for Teva, said the Israel-based pharmaceutical company had set aside $285 million to pay its share of the final agreement. “Teva is pleased to have put the vast majority of these matters behind us,” Bradley said, adding that the company still has 15 more cases pending in Nevada courts.

The ‘group’ settlement is reportedly one of the largest in Nevada history and averts countless hours and untold millions spent in litigation. The load on the judicial system of Clark County just got significantly lighter. Cases included in the settlement include a Teva … (Continued…)

Texas Medical Board Suspends Conrad Murray’s Medical License

February 17, 2012 lawmed No comments

Citing no emergent need to act since Conrad Murray is serving a 4 year prison sentence for his conviction of involuntary manslaughter in the death of Michael Jackson and is not a threat to the citizens of Texas, the Texas Medical Board put the matter of dealing with the convicted felon’s medical license into their routine flow of business. On February 10 they suspended his license to practice. His Texas license was already restricted, forbidding him from administering propofol to any patients. Murray’s licenses to practice in California and Nevada have already been suspended indefinitely.

Read the Board’s order below:

View this document on Scribd

… (Continued…)

Higher Learning Commission Wraps 3 Day Evaluation Visit At MSU

February 17, 2012 lawmed No comments

An accreditation review team from the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) completed a 3 day site visit of embattled Mountain State University (MSU) this week says acting MSU President Dr. Jerry Ice. Ice addressed MSU students and faculty at a forum on Wednesday telling them “You are a big credit in where we are in the success I want us to continue to have.” Ice took over the helm at MSU last month after President Charles Polk was fired by the board of trustees. MSU was ordered to show cause why accreditation should not be withheld.

The process leading up to a decision by the HLC, which will ultimately lead to the approval or denial of accreditation of MSU and the survival or potential demise of the institution is as follows: The HLC will submit a draft of its report to MSU by March 19. MSU will then be given until … (Continued…)

Md Abortion Docs Murder Trials Dates Set

February 16, 2012 lawmed No comments

A Cecil County judge has set a trial date of June 27 for a Utah abortion doctor charged with murder for the death of a fetus during a 2010 procedure in Maryland and a June 6 date for the trial of a New Jersey doctor charged with 5 counts of murder in the deaths of as many fetuses.

Dr. Nicola Riley of Utah is charged under a Maryland law that allows prosecutors to pursue murder charges in the death of a viable fetus. Her former colleague, Dr. Steven Brigham of New Jersey, has been charged in the deaths of five fetuses, and all of the deaths are related to abortions performed at an Elkton, Md. clinic run by Brigham. While the abortions themselves would have normally been legally performed in any licensed facility, by a license practitioner in Maryland, Brigham was not licensed to practice medicine in the state of … (Continued…)

Nurse Pleads Guilty To Propofol Murder Of Stepfather

February 12, 2012 lawmed No comments

In Dekalb County, Al, prosecutors say 32-year-old Karri Denise Willoughby siphoned money away from her stepfather, Billy Shaw’s, account and stole her mother’s identity for financial gain. When her theft was discovered her access to the accounts was cut off and in response she murdered Shaw they say. On Wednesday, the day after a jury was seated and the morning her trial was to begin on capital murder charges, Willoughby agreed with them and pleaded guilty to a lesser count of murder. She has been sentenced to 20 years.

It was first thought that in 2008 Shaw died of a heart attack. A year later his body was exumed when toxicology results revealed a high concentration of propofol in his blood stream at the time of death. Also found were the drugs vecuronium and succinylcholine, powerful paralytic drugs used in surgery. Willoughby worked as a registered nurse at a Chattanooga, … (Continued…)

Lawsuit: Sisters Have Hospital Kill Multi Millionaire Father For Inheritence

February 10, 2012 lawmed No comments

Victorino Noval, 78, entered a Kaiser hospital in Southern California on April 28, 2010, with a diagnosis of aspiration pneumonia. He was intubated, placed on a mechanical ventilator, and sedated. His medical history included early stages of Parkinson’s, and COPD. Noval was totally independent prior to his hospitalization. He lived in his own home, drove his own car, performed his own daily living activities, managed his own finances and investments, and had an annual income of $3 Million. He was worth an estimated $60 Million.

On May 7th, 2010, despite exhibiting improvement in his pneumonia and having a positive prognosis for recovery, Kaiser staff removed Noval from his ventilator, extubated him, and then administered large doses of morphine with the sole intention being to bring about his death. They succeeded. And this was all done without consulting his son, Hector Nova, despite the fact that Kaiser had an executed durable … (Continued…)

Prosecutor: Videotaped Deposition Of Dying Nevada Hepatitis C Victim Needed

February 08, 2012 lawmed No comments

In papers asking to take his videotaped deposition filed in court Monday, Clark County NV Chief District Attorney Mike Staudaher said the hepatitis C virus has left Rodolfo Meana, 76, terminally ill, and he could die at any moment.

Meana’s hepatitis C case is one of seven the Southern Nevada Health District investigation genetically linked to Dr. Dipak Desai’s Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada contamination case. Desai was recently found competent to stand trial after suffering two strokes. All seven patients who contracted the illness are named as victims of felony criminal neglect in a 28-count indictment against Desai, 62, and two of his nurse anesthetists, Keith Mathahs and Ronald Lakeman. That trial is scheduled to begin in March, but is likely to be delayed. If Meana is alive and able to testify when needed at trial, his live testimony will instead be used.

Meana has purchased a March 27 … (Continued…)

Judge Rules Dr. Desai Competent For Trial In Nevada Hepatitis C Case

February 04, 2012 lawmed No comments

Citing a report from two psychiatrists and a psychologist at a state mental facility in Sparks who found that Dipak Desai is “competent and obviously exaggerating his symptoms” from strokes in September 2007 and July 2008 to avoid trial, Clark County District Court Judge Kathleen declared him competent to stand trial. Desai received six months of treatment at the facility last year after being court ordered there after state psychiatry experts declared him incompetent.

“The only impediment to competency asserted by the defendant is self-reported memory loss, secondary to two strokes, regarding facts relevant to his criminal charges,” the judge said. “Memory loss itself, even if true, is not a bar to prosecution of an otherwise competent defendant.” Desai’s lawyer, Richard Wright, contends that Desai is incapacitated by his strokes and other physical and mental ailments, to the point he is legally incompetent for trial.

The ruling cleared the way … (Continued…)

Full Circle: Winkler County Atty Tidwell Has License Suspended

February 04, 2012 lawmed No comments

Things have been coming full circle in the extraordinary case of the Winkler County Texas Nurse Whistleblower Case over the past year and that circle may just have closed. The last bit of justice seems to have been served with the suspension of former Winkler County Attorney Scott Tidwell’s license to practice law in the state of Texas.

It all began in 2009 when Anne Mitchell and Vicki Galle, two nurses working at Winkler County Memorial Hospital who were responsible for Quality Assurance, Risk Management and Medical Staff privileges advised hospital administrator Stan Wiley that one of their physicians, Dr. Rolando Arafiles, had violated the standard of care, hospital policies and made some serious medical errors. Wiley refused to take any action and told the two they were prohibited from reporting Arafiles to any outside agency without his approval, in violation of state law.

Concerned over the safety of their … (Continued…)

Ohio Anesthesiologist Convicted Of Murder Seeking New Trial [VIDEO]

February 01, 2012 lawmed No comments

Former anesthesiologist and convicted murderer Mark Wangler is back in an Ohio courtroom asking for a new trial.

His attorney argued before the Third District Court of Appeals the reasons they should overturn the aggravated murder conviction for the death of Wangler’s first wife Kathy. The arguments focused on scientific evidence allowed, and not allowed, during the March 2011 trial. Attorney Christopher McDowell criticized the method scientists used to test chemicals on duct work in the home, calling it junk science. McDowell said Judge Richard Warren shouldn’t have allowed jurors to hear the testimony at all. He also objected to a defense witness not being allowed to refute the evidence. The chemical evidence was key since Wangler was convicted of killing his wife by using carbon monoxide, a deadly asphyxiate gas.

McDowell also says officers collected evidence beyond the scope allowed by a search warrant including a diary. However, assistant … (Continued…)

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