Law Med Blog

Judge Rules Charges Against NV Physician In Hepatitis C Case Stand

May 13, 2012 lawmed No comments

Clark County District Court Judge Valerie Adair rejected defense attorney Richard Wright’s argument that the 35-page indictment returned in June 2010 against former physician Dipak Desai was unconstitutionally vague and confusing on Thursday. Desai was a prominent Las Vegas physician and state medical board member who operated clinics where health officials say patients became infected with hepatitis C in 2007.

Prosecutors allege that Desai was trying to save money at his Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada and Desert Shadow Endoscopy Center and orchestrated a scheme that required staff to use the anesthetic propofol that remained in previously opened vials on multiple patients, and to reuse colonoscopy scopes and bite plates from patient to patient during outpatient procedures. Propofol is well-known to allow rapid growth of bacteria and viruses due to its high protein content.

Desai recently lost a 2 year battle to have himself declared incompetent to stand trial after … (Continued…)

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“Stillborn” Premature Infant Found Alive In Coffin By Mother [VIDEO]

April 14, 2012 lawmed 1 Comment

Five “medical professionals” in the northern province of Chaco, Argentina, have been suspended pending an investigation after a newborn was pronounced dead at birth and shipped off to the morgue only to be discovered alive in a coffin by her mother, Analia Bouter, some 12 hours later. The little girl was born premature at 26 weeks gestation and declared stillborn.

From CBS news:

Bouter told the TeleNoticias TV channel in an interview Tuesday night that doctors gave her the death certificate moments after the girl was born, and that she still hasn’t received a birth certificate. She said the baby was quickly put in a coffin and taken to the morgue’s refrigeration room. Twelve hours passed before she and her husband were able to open the coffin to say their last goodbyes.

That’s when the baby trembled, she said. Bouter thought it was her imagination – then she

… (Continued…)

Supervision Of CRNAs Does Not Create Liability For Surgeons

April 05, 2012 lawmed 8 Comments

By Greg Stocks, The Law Med Blog

While any author certainly prefers that the reader take the time to read his or her work in its entirety, for those who want a quick answer without the evidence and law explained, here it is: Surgeons do not expose themselves to greater liability when they work with Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNAs) alone vs physician anesthesiologists alone. Regardless of what anyone might tell you to the contrary, the courts and the case law are unambiguous and very complete on the matter. But don’t just believe me, read on for the irrefutable facts based in law.

It is worth noting from the outset that due to the incredible record of safety which the administration of anesthesia enjoys (so safe that it is the envy of every other medical and nursing specialty in this regard), concerns from surgeons over their liability exposure for anesthesia … (Continued…)

Calif Strip Mall Doc Charged With Murder In Prescription Drug Deaths

April 02, 2012 lawmed No comments

A Rowland Heights, California physician pleaded not guilty Friday in Los Angeles County Superior Court to murder charges in connection with three fatal prescription drug overdoses.

Hsiu-Ying “Lisa” Tseng D.O., 42, is charged with three counts of second-degree murder in the deaths of Vu Nguyen, 28, of Lake Forest; Steven Ogle, 25, of Palm Desert; and Joey Rovero, 21, an Arizona State University student from San Ramon, east of San Francisco. She also is charged with 20 felony counts of prescribing painkillers and anti-anxiety drugs to people who had no legitimate medical need for the medications. She is being held on $3-million bail.

Judge Shelly Torrealba denied a request from Tseng’s attorney, T. Edward Welbourn, to lower her bail. “I see this situation no differently than any other murder situation,” Torrealba said. “Three people are dead.”

The charges against Tseng are a relatively rare attempt to hold a physician criminally … (Continued…)

Poor Patients Do Not Sue Their Doctors More Frequently

February 29, 2012 lawmed 1 Comment

From Springer.com.

Contrary to the common perception among physicians that poor people sue doctors more frequently, Ramon L. Jimenez from the Monterey Orthopaedic and Sports Medicine Institute and his team demonstrate that socioeconomically disadvantaged patients, in fact, tend to sue physicians less often. Their work suggests that this myth may exist because of subconscious prejudices or stereotypes that affect thinking and decision making without doctors being aware of it – a phenomenon known as unconscious bias. Dr. Jimenez and his colleagues’ work is published online in Springer’s journal, Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research.

Some physicians believe that, as a group, low-income patients tend to sue their doctors more often than other patients. This mindset has potential negative effects on the doctor-patient relationship, including some physicians’ reluctance to treat poor patients, or treat such patients differently from other patient groups in medical care terms.

Jimenez and team reviewed medical and … (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…)

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…)

Ark Court Rejects Tort Reform Provision On Expert Witnesses

February 06, 2012 lawmed No comments

In 2003 the Arkansas legislature enacted a tort reform law that included a provision that expert witnesses in medical malpractice liability lawsuits must practice in the same specialty as defendant doctors. The requirement that testifying experts must be in the same specialty as a defendant physician when they testify on his/her behalf or against, when that testimony goes to the standard of care in that specialty has been a long standing one in many states. The requirement is sensible to the point of being common sense, and a very important one. But, due to constitutional language specific to Arkansas, the legislature does not have the power pass such a law. That power lies within the courts of Arkansas alone as we shall discuss.

On January 19 the Arkansas supreme court ruled the requirement “violates the separation-of-powers doctrine, Amendment 80, and the inherent authority of the courts to protect the integrity … (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…)

Pa Supreme Court: Physicians Can Be Sued For Emotional Distress

January 30, 2012 lawmed No comments

The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania has ruled a physician can be sued for causing a patient emotional distress, even when no medical negligence, physical contact or malpractice exists. The ruling stems from a lawsuit filed by a woman who claims her physician did not prepare her for the shock of the severe deformities her infant was born with.

In March of 2003 Jeanelle Toney went to radiologist Maheep Goyal, MD, for a pelvic ultrasound. Dr. Goyal informed her that the results were normal and did not indicate any fetal abnormalities in her unborn child, according to her lawsuit. Rather, Toney was advised that her unborn child was normal and healthy. She gave birth in July delivering a boy who was profoundly deformed. He lacked arms below the elbows and legs below the knee joints, and an incompletely developed tongue and under-sized lower jaw, among other anomalies. Toney was awake and … (Continued…)

OH Appelate Court: Disclosure Of Errors To Family Not Peer Review

January 26, 2012 lawmed No comments

Similar to laws on the books in every state, Ohio law protects a hospital that reveals an admission of error in peer review from having that information being discovered and used in malpractice cases. In the case of medical malpractice case Smith v Cleveland Clinic, et al., the defendants attempted to prevent statements made by the hospital’s chief medical officer during a conference with the family being admitted in court claiming they were privileged as part of peer review.

Howard L. Smith, 73, underwent an uneventful knee surgery at Community Health Partners Regional Medical Center, now known as Mercy Regional Medical Center, in Lorain, Ohio, on February 17, 2010. Postoperative routine blood work orders were entered and Smith’s blood was taken on the 18th. One of the ordered tests was for serum potassium. On February 19th Smith suffered a cardiac arrest, was resuscitated, but removed from life support on March … (Continued…)

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