Law Med Blog

Kentucky Paramedic Sentenced To 2 Years For Tampering With Fentanyl

May 08, 2012 lawmed 2 Comments

MONTICELLO, Ky. – U.S. District Court Judge Gregory Van Tatenhove sentenced former paramedic 49-year-old Susie Willis to two years in prison Thursday for tampering with pain medication carried on the ambulance.

In May of 2010, Willis admitted she broke the seal on at least two medication vials containing the intravenous narcotic fentanyl citrate. She withdrew the medicine for her own personal use and then in an effort to avoid detection refilled the vials with saline solution. She resealed the vials with crazy glue. Presumably the saline was administered to subsequent patients who were in pain and would have provided no relief.

Willis’ plea agreement stated that the saline solution could have caused “extreme physical pain or impairment of bodily functions” if administered to a patient instead of the intended fentanyl. She surrendered her EMT license in December of 2010.

Under federal law she must serve 85% of her prison sentence … (Continued…)

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Iowa City Sues Lawyers For Bad Advice In EMS Medicare Fraud Settlement

April 01, 2012 lawmed 3 Comments

From EMSWORLD

CLINTON, IA – The city of Clinton has filed a $3 million lawsuit against the attorney and law firm that handled the city’s $4.5 million settlement of a whistleblower lawsuit.

The lawsuit filed Wednesday in Clinton County District Court claims attorney Michael Walker of Davenport and his law firm, Hopkins & Huebner, were negligent in the legal work that led to settlement of the lawsuit over the city’s allegedly fraudulent billing of Medicare and Medicaid for emergency medical service runs.

The federal false claims act lawsuit was filed in 2008 by a former firefighter and settled in 2010 for payment of $4.5 million over 10 years.

The city claims Walker and the firm negligently caused a “rush to judgment” in recommending the settlement, according to the lawsuit.

Ron Pogge, an attorney for Hopkins & Huebner, said Thursday, “We stand by the advice we gave them, and we’ll let … (Continued…)

Paramedic Errors: Chicago Will Pay $1.75M In Death Of 13 y/o

February 17, 2012 lawmed 2 Comments

A Chicago City Council committee has signed off on a $1.75 million settlement to compensate the family of 13-year-old Arielle Starks who died of an asthmatic attack after a series of alleged mistakes by Chicago Fire Department paramedics in 2002.

Starks died at Advocate Trinity Hospital after an ambulance carrying her to the hospital collided with a car. Another ambulance picked her up at the accident scene and took her to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

Attorney’s for the girl’s family alleged 3 crucial mistakes that day. The first mistake: the child was “intubated through the esophagus that leads to the stomach instead of through the trachea that leads to her lungs,” attorney Brian Murphy said. The second mistake involved ignoring a “standing medical order” issued by the Fire Department. According to Murphy, it states that if a patient’s condition worsens, paramedics are to make a direct observation … (Continued…)

Remembering MSP Medevac Trooper 2 Three Years On [VIDEO]

September 26, 2011 lawmed No comments

Around 11:10 pm Saturday September 27th, 2008, Maryland State Police Medevac Trooper 2 responded to Waldorf, Maryland. The mission was to transport two car crash victims to Prince George’s Hospital Center’s trauma unit, between Washington DC and Baltimore, MD.

After lifting off from the scene with 3 crew members and two patients on board, the experienced pilot contacted the tower at Andrews Air Force Base requesting assistance with an instrument landing due to a sudden change in weather and low ceiling. Two ambulances were dispatched to the airfield to meet the helicopter and complete the patient transports.

The helicopter never arrived.

According to National Transportation Safety Board member Debbie Hersman, between the time the helicopter left its hanger at Andrews Air Force Base and when it was back in the same area, heading to the hospital, visibility had dropped from about seven miles to four miles. In that same hour, … (Continued…)

FAA Faces Another Lawsuit Over MSP Medevac Crash

March 01, 2011 lawmed No comments

Mother of victim alleges controllers were negligent.

By Michael Dresser, The Baltimore Sun

The mother of a victim in the September 2008 Maryland State Police helicopter crash that killed four people near Andrews Air Force base filed suit against the Federal Aviation Administration on Monday, contending that the agency’s air traffic controllers gave the pilot inaccurate weather information.

The suit filed in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt by Stephanie D. Younger of Waldorf, mother of crash victim Ashley Younger, is expected to be the last of several filed against the FAA, according to the law firm representing the plaintiff. The state of Maryland is among those who have sued the agency.

At the time of the crash, 17-year-old Ashley Younger was being transported to Prince George’s Hospital Center for treatment of injuries she received in an automobile crash near Waldorf on the night of Sept. 27, 2008.

The helicopter, known

… (Continued…)

Man Dies After ER Says Call 911 For Cardiac Arrest In Parking Lot

February 12, 2011 lawmed No comments

In a story that is filed under “Don’t Quote ‘Policies’ As An Excuse for Not Thinking”, Portland Adventist Medical Center officials are doing just that in order to find a good reason why their ER staff refused to walk outside their door and care for a man who had stopped breathing in the parking lot.

61 y/o Birgilio Marin-Fuentes felt ill shortly after midnight and drove himself to the emergency room. He almost made it. He appears to have suffered a heart attack and cardiac arrest as he pulled into the parking lot resulting in his car hitting a pillar. A bystander found him and flagged down a nearby police officer who immediately began CPR with a fellow officer. A third officer ran the 125 feet into the ER and told them what happened, asking for help. To his amazement he was told to “call 911″ since it was “policy” … (Continued…)

Latest Deadly Drug Fad “Bath Salts” Prompts State Action

January 31, 2011 lawmed 1 Comment

Dickie Sanders, left, with his father Dr. Richard Sanders. Dickie's Nov. 12 suicide came after three days of intermittent psychotic episodes apparently induced when he snorted a packet of "Cloud Nine" bath salts, his father said.

From The Baltimore Sun printing of the LA Times Article

The synthetic stimulants are legal in most of the U.S. for now. As more users show up in emergency rooms, states are taking action.

The website that hawks the “concentrated bath salts” warns in red letters: “Not for human consumption.”

It cautions against using alcohol and prescription medications while “bathing,” and adds, “PLEASE do not use this as SNUFF.”

But the little packets of powder, with names like “Ivory Wave” and “Vanilla Sky,” were never intended for the tub, and they’re not among the fragrant samples in the bath and body shop at the local mall. The “bath salts,” are powerful synthetic stimulants, designed to be comparable to cocaine or methamphetamine, and with similar risks, law enforcement and health officials say.

But unlike cocaine or meth, the stimulants are legal in most of the United States, at least for now, … (Continued…)

5 Teens Dead From CO Poisoning At FL Hotel: Detroit EMS Is A Killer VIDEOS

December 29, 2010 lawmed 2 Comments

Hialeah fire officials say five friends are dead likely from carbon monoxide poisoning caused by a running car in a closed garage underneath their South Florida motel room.

Hialeah police spokesman Carl Zogby says it is believed to be an accident.

http://lawmedconsultant.com/teenco.flv

WJBK FOX2 Detroit, Mi. – Paramedics have been put on desk duty after [a WJBK FOX2] report on a slow response that may have contributed to a man’s death. However, some are questioning whether it is the wrong move. The dead man’s family said punishing the ambulance crew is not going to fix the problem.

http://lawmedconsultant.com/detroit.flv… (Continued…)

Two Five Alarm Fires Smoke Law Med Like A Ham

December 07, 2010 lawmed No comments

Twice in 12 hours Law Med was surrounded by 5 alarm fires in downtown Baltimore. First it was the famous ‘block’ going up in flames. No, Law Med was not having lunch at a strip club, but smoke from the huge blaze wafted over his neighborhood six blocks away. Then just a few hours later another 5 alarms went out for a blaze 2 blocks away, this time filling the street with a steady fog of smoke. So a stroll was in order for some pictures and video. As this is published the fire remains out of control.

… (Continued…)

Controversial FDNY Rapid Organ Harvest Program Set To Begin

October 26, 2010 lawmed No comments

The FDNY is hiring EMTs to man a new “Organ Preservation Vehicle” that will race around Manhattan to make sure fewer organs go to waste. Starting next month, the $1.5 million pilot program will dispatch two EMTs, a “family services coordinator” and a doctor to the scene of accidents or cardiac arrests. If the next of kin consents, after attempts to resuscitate the decedent have failed they’ll keep the “potential organ donor” on a ventilator and rush him or her to Bellevue Medical Center to remove the organs.

Officials insist this won’t get in the way of NYPD homicide investigations, and a spokesman for the department says, “These people may have wanted to be an organ donor, but there is currently no system in place to have this occur. We’re very excited about this new, cooperative plan that will allow us to do even more to honor organ donors’ … (Continued…)

Baltimore Woman Dead 3 Hours Wakes When Anatomy Lab Comes For Body

October 16, 2010 lawmed No comments

Apparently the ‘smell test’ really is useless in determining patient death.

From the Baltimore Sun

A Severna Park woman police reported dead after finding her blue and not breathing in her home was actually alive.

Police were called to check on 89-year-old Ruth Shillinglaw Johnson on Oct. 1. According to a report, officers found her motionless on her bathroom floor, and one officer noted an odor “similar to a decomposition smell.”

But officers did not check for a pulse. Instead, they called Johnson’s adult son and told him his mother was dead, according to an account first appearing in The Capital newspaper of Annapolis. The man said Johnson planned to donate her body to science. A State Anatomy Board employee arriving to take the body three hours later heard Johnson take a deep breath and saw her move her arm.

Johnson was rushed to a hospital. She was discharged Wednesday. … (Continued…)

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