Law Med Blog

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…)

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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…)

Desai Competancy Hearing Held Friday In Nevada Hepatitis C Case

January 29, 2012 lawmed No comments

The issue of the competency of Dr. Dipak Desai to stand trial was again before Clark County District Court Judge Kathleen Delaney on Friday. Back in February of 2011 two court appointed medical experts found Desai incompetent for trial and he was ordered into custody at a state mental health facility.

Dr. Steven Zuchowski, a state psychiatrist, treated Desai last year at the Lakes Crossing state mental facility in Sparks. The goal of treatment at the facility was to determine whether Desai could be made competent and to implement treatment as appropriate if he could.

Zuchowski testified Friday that despite suffering two strokes, the embattled former physician-owner of Las Vegas outpatient colonoscopy clinics at the center of a 2008 Hepatitis C outbreak, is mentally competent to stand trial on criminal charges. He told the court that Desai’s memory was affected by strokes in 2007 and 2008, but that he was … (Continued…)

Juries Slap Propofol Companies With Over $280M Damages In Hep C Cases

October 15, 2011 lawmed 1 Comment

Two separate juries have levied a combined total of over $250 Million in punitive damages for 5 plaintiffs in two separate trials. The plaintiffs were suing after they contracted Hepatitis C from what their lawyers argued was contaminated propofol. The defendants were Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. and Baxter International Inc., manufacturers and distributors of the drug.

Plaintiffs argued that the pharmaceutical companies were negligent when they packaged the propofol in large vials thereby encouraging multiple use of what is supposed to be a single use vial. Propofol is particularly prone to contamination and its formula promotes growth of viruses and bacteria.

Michael Washington and his wife, Josephine, alleged that Mr. Washington was diagnosed with Hepatitis C in 2007 after he received Propofol from a reused vial at a Las Vegas Endoscopy clinic run by Dr. Dipak Desai. They were awarded $90 Million in punitive damages Friday. The same jury awarded … (Continued…)

Nevada Hepatitis C Outbreak Lawsuit Update [VIDEO]

September 26, 2011 lawmed No comments

As one of the Hepatitis C civil trials continues in a Nevada courtroom, emotional testimony was heard from Anne Arnold, who contracted the disease during an endoscopic procedure at a clinic run by Dr. Desai in 2007. Equally heart wrenching testimony came from her husband, James Arnold, who, while clearly in physical pain testified that his own current ongoing battle with non-Hodkins lymphoma has left his immune system devastated and suseptible to infections.

“We don’t hold hands, we don’t kiss, it’s just sad. She’d never be able to handle it if I somehow got it. I lost my wife and I got a roommate”. he told the courtroom.

Arnold was exposed to the virus hepatitis C when she claims an allegedly contaminated 50mL infusion vial of the anesthesia medication Propofol was reused during her procedure at the Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada. The smaller 20ml vial is generally twice the … (Continued…)

Dr. Desai Now Competant to Stand Trial Say His Doctors

September 23, 2011 lawmed No comments

On February 8, Dr. Dipak Desai was determined incompetent to stand trial on a 28 count criminal indictment for his role in owning and operating 2 Nevada endoscopy clinics where shoddy practices and disregard for vital protocols led to 250 patients allegedly contracting hepatitis C and the need for ~50,000 patients to be tested for a number of communicable diseases. The indictment is heavy with charges of racketeering and insurance fraud. Court appointed physicians made the determination after Desai’s attorney’s claimed the effects of two resent strokes left him cognitively impaired. As is proper legal procedure in such cases, a competency hearing was held and Desai was court ordered to be admitted to a state mental facility for determination if and when he could be rehabilitated back to competency.

Now, according to Dr. Elizabeth Neighbors, director of the state’s mental health hospital, 3 physicians reported back to the judge that … (Continued…)

Second Hepatitis C Trial Underway Against Propofol Maker

August 29, 2011 lawmed 1 Comment

Teva and Baxter Pharmaceuticals are in a Nevada court for the second time defending against allegations that improper packaging and labeling contributed to contamination of the anesthetic drug propofol with the Hepatitis C virus. Three Las Vegas residents say they contracted the virus when they were administered the drug at a Las Vegas colonoscopy center run by Dr. Dipak Desai. The vials of propofol are intended for single use only and in a novel legal approach lawyers for the plaintiffs are claiming that the size of the vials encouraged multiple use.

In the first similar case tried the jury awarded the plaintiff $500 million in punitive damages, an award later reversed by the US Supreme Court which found that generic drug makers like Teva and Baxter could not be held liable for using the same labeling which was approved for the original patent holding manufacturer by the FDA. Just … (Continued…)

Nevada Supreme Court Issues important Evidence Rulings In Hepatitis C Cases

July 30, 2011 lawmed No comments

We previously discussed the case of Henry Chanin, 62, who sued Teva Parenteral Medicines Inc. and Baxter Healthcare Corp., the two companies that made and distributed, respectively, the anesthetic propofol used at Desert Shadow Endoscopy Center, where Chanin was infected with hepatitis C during a routine procedure. The judge ruled, before the trail began, that contamination of propofol was to blame for the Chanin contracting the Hepatitis C infection despite evidence to the contrary, thus preventing that evidence from being offered at trial. The jury never heard the testimony of a CRNA that while she did draw up propofol in multiple syringes from one vial, no syringes or needles were used on more than one patient. If true, transmission of the virus would have been impossible from the propofol.

Chanin was awarded a record $500 Million in damages….an award that has since been struck down. With many … (Continued…)

Teva Wins HUGE In Propofol Case Credit U.S. Supreme Court

June 24, 2011 lawmed No comments

It has been over a year since we told you about a jury verdict in Nevada against Teva Pharmaceuticals a while ago that cost them $500 Million Dollars. The case involved a Nevada resident who contracted Hepatitis C allegedly from contaminated propofol, the anesthetic used to sedate him for a colonoscopy at the clinic of infamous Dr. Desai where 40,000 former patients were potentially exposed to the virus. In a novel approach, the plaintiff sued the drug manufacturer claiming that improper packaging of the drug encouraged re-use of the single use vial, which led to the contamination. The jury agreed and punished the drug makers with a huge judgment.

Easy come, easy go, Teva is off the hook.

On Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Teva Pharmaceutical Industries and other generic drug makers “cannot be sued under state law over allegations that they failed to provide adequate label … (Continued…)

Dr. Desai’s Office Manager Feels “Betrayed”

April 29, 2011 lawmed No comments

Indicted Witness in Hepatitis C Case Upset

From The Las Vegas Review Journal By Jeff German

Tonya Rushing, a key witness in the district attorney’s criminal case against Dr. Dipak Desai, lashed out at federal prosecutors Thursday, a day after they indicted her and the physician on health care fraud charges.

“I feel betrayed,” said Rushing, who ran Desai’s endoscopy clinics at the center of a hepatitis C outbreak. “I feel like a pawn. I don’t know who to trust anymore.”

In an interview, Rushing said she not only cooperated with the district attorney’s office in the past year but also with the federal prosecutors who obtained her indictment.

“They know I don’t have the means, like Desai, to fight them,” she said. “I’m an easy target. They’re taking the easy way out.”

Read the rest of the story here: The Las Vegas Review Journal… (Continued…)

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