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...)

Today’s Healthcare Headlines:

• States get $229 million for insurance exchanges
  The total number of states receiving grants to establish state health insurance exchanges rose to 34 with the issuance of $229 million in federal funds to 10 states Wednesday.
• Lack of adequate data noted in MIC reviews
  Medicaid integrity review contractors lacked adequate data to identify potential overpayment and fraud, according to an analysis of the program’s early performance.
• Meaningful-use regs arrive tomorrow, Mostashari says
  Long-awaited proposed regulations for Stage 2 meaningful-use requirements will be out tomorrow, Dr. Farzad Mostashari, head of the Office of the National Coordinator for…
• CHIME wants minimal delay on ICD-10
  Another health information technology group pushed back on the recent HHS decision to indefinitely delay implementation of ICD-10.
• Healthy Advice Networks buys PatientPoint
  Healthy Advice Networks, Cincinnati, a maker of software for patient and physician engagement, has purchased another software company, Orlando, Fla.-based PatientPoint.
• Doc
… (Continued...)

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...)

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...)

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: 

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...)

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...)

Today’s Healthcare Headlines:

• Notices detail how premiums are spent
  HHS unveiled sample notices that health plans must send policyholders beginning this summer to explain how their premiums are spent and informing them when rebates are owed because too little was spent on healthcare services.
• Details of SGR deal released
  Federal lawmakers on Thursday agreed on a payroll tax holiday bill that would prevent a 27.4% cut in Medicare physician payment rates scheduled for March 1 and would freeze current payment rates through Dec. 31, 2012. The provision also requires…
• Patients like EHRs but worry about data security: survey
  Patients generally see electronic health-record systems as a good thing and want their physicians to use them, but a large percentage also see a dark side to EHRs when it comes to data privacy and security, according to a report from the National…
• Fujifilm completes tender offer for SonoSite
  Fujifilm Holdings Corp.
… (Continued...)

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...)

Today’s Healthcare Headlines:

• FDA issues draft guidance on biosimilars
  The Food and Drug Administration issued three draft guidance documents on the development of drugs known as biosimilars.
• Ark. teams with OptumInsight for info exchange
  Arkansas officials announced a partnership with technology vendor OptumInsight, healthcare consultancy Oleen Pinnacle and health information technology extension center HITArkansas to develop the state’s health information exchange.
• API buys online software provider Concerro
  API Healthcare, Hartford, Wis., has acquired Concerro, a San Diego-based provider of cloud-based software for healthcare staffing and scheduling systems.
• CardioNet buys ECG Scanning & Medical Services
  Wireless-medical technology company CardioNet, Conshohocken, Pa., has acquired ECG Scanning & Medical Services, a cardiac-monitoring services company, for $5.8 million.
• West Penn sees operating losses quicken
  West Penn Allegheny Health System’s operating losses accelerated to $32 million during the three months ended in December. The previous quarter saw operating losses of $25.2 million.
• Senators ask OMB
… (Continued...)

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...)

Today’s Healthcare Headlines:

• Ministry Health buys out partner in Wis. system
  Affinity Health System in Wisconsin’s Fox Valley has converted from a jointly sponsored three-hospital system into an entity controlled by a single Roman Catholic hospital operator with the goal of becoming an accountable care organization.
• HHS aims to curb pre-term births
  The Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation will award about $40 million in grants to test approaches that can help reduce the rising number of pre-term births in the U.S.
• Brookings report: Barriers limit state health information exchanges
  The current governance, financing and policy barriers limit state health information exchanges from reaching their full potential, the Brookings Institution said in a report.
• Recondo Technology acquires Trilogi
  Recondo Technology, the Greenwood Village, Colo.-based healthcare revenue-cycle software developer, announced the acquisition of Lakeland, Fla.-based Trilogi, a revenue-cycle management and recovery company.
• Atlanta-area hospitals seek consolidation
  A consolidation agreement may be
… (Continued...)

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...)

Today’s Healthcare Headlines:

• Crowd-sourced contest developer InnoCentive buys OmniCompete
  Waltham, Mass.-based InnoCentive, which works with companies to develop online tools for crowd-sourced problem-solving, has acquired OmniCompete, a U.K-based developer of online competitions.
• HIMSS names three as clinician IT leaders
  Nurses Carol Bickford and Kathleen Smith and Dr. Russell Leftwich were named winners of the Chicago-based Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society’s clinician information technology leadership awards.
• HCA to pay special dividend of $1 billion
  HCA, Nashville, announced it would be paying a special dividend to shareholders worth a total of about $1 billion, as it announced fourth-quarter earnings of $1.9 billion.
• Longtime hospice advocate Labyak dies
  Mary Labyak, a pioneer of the U.S. hospice movement, died Saturday from lymphoma, according to a spokesman for the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization.
• NIH launches consumer clinical-trials site
  The National Institutes of Health has launched a new website aimed at educating the
… (Continued...)

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...)

Today’s Healthcare Headlines:

• Ascension, N.J. hospitals discuss new system
  Ascension Health Care Network, the for-profit joint venture between the largest U.S. Catholic health system and a private equity firm, is in talks with two New Jersey hospitals about the possible development of a new Catholic system in the state.
• AMA presses Sebelius to halt ICD-10
  The American Medical Association is taking second aim in its call to federal officials to halt the planned and federally mandated 2013 rollout of the International Classification of Diseases 10th Revision family of procedural and diagnostic codes.
• MediSwipe plans to acquire social media network
  MediSwipe, a Los Angeles-based provider of merchant payment services and financial products for the healthcare industry, signed a letter of intent to acquire the assets of ReachMeDaily.com, a social media network used by residents in nursing homes…
• Canadian telecom giant acquires EHR vendor
  Telecommunications giant Telus expanded its reach into Canada’s
… (Continued...)

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...)

Lawyers for Dr. Nicola Riley, charged with murder accused of killing a fetus during a late-term abortion at a Elkton Maryland clinic have motioned the  Cecil County Circuit Court to allow them to inspect specimens of that fetus.

 Riley and 55-year-old Dr. Steven Brigham of Voorhees, N.J., have been charged with murder in the death of a fetus, Brigham with 5 counts. While in and of itself late term abortion is legal in the state of Maryland, the charges stem from the fact that Brigham, licensed in New Jersey, was not licensed to practice in Md., and Riley knew this yet knowingly practiced in Md. along side him. Riley is licensed in Md.

Stuart O. Simms, one of Riley’s lawyers, filed the motion asking the judge to order the State Medical Examiner’s Office to allow a defense expert to inspect any specimens identified as Male Fetus Brewer.… (Continued...)

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...)

Today’s Healthcare Headlines:

• Study finds rising number of HAI outbreaks tied to norovirus
  An increasing number of healthcare-associated infection outbreaks are due to norovirus, an easily spreadable organism whose symptoms include vomiting and fever, according to a study in the American Journal of Infection Control.
• Grassley queries FDA chief on retaliation allegations
  A senior Senate Republican is trying to determine how far the Food and Drug Administration took its alleged monitoring and retaliation against employees who raised safety concerns about some medical devices.
• Prime drops offer; N.J. board OKs plans for bankruptcy filing
  Christ Hospital’s board of trustees approved plans for a bankruptcy filing “if necessary” after Prime Healthcare Services withdrew an offer to buy the struggling New Jersey hospital.
• Group pushes health worker flu vaccinations
  A national employer healthcare group joined several provider advocacy groups in urging hospitals to require their employees to obtain annual influenza vaccinations.
• Reform shrinking
… (Continued...)

Today’s Headlines:

• UMass Memorial to eliminate up to 900 positions
  UMass Memorial Health Care, a five-hospital system based in Worcester, Mass., said it will eliminate hundreds of jobs and sell off some business units in order to avoid ending the current fiscal year with a loss.
• House slated to vote on CLASS Act repeal
  House members are scheduled to vote late Wednesday on repealing the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports Act, the voluntary long-term-care program included in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
• HCA completes acquisition of heart hospital
  HCA completed its acquisition of Galichia Heart Hospital, an 82-bed hospital in Wichita, Kan.
• More resources needed for import oversight: Hamburg
  The Food and Drug Administration needs more resources for oversight of products developed and manufactured overseas, FDA Commissioner Dr. Margaret Hamburg said during a House hearing examining the Prescription Drug User Fee Act.
• Lawmakers urged to spare hospitals
… (Continued...)

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...)

Pfizer pharmaceuticals has recalled 1 million birth control pill packets because they “may not prevent pregnancy”, which is certainly an undesirable property in a birth control medication. From their press release issued last evening:

Pfizer Announces Voluntary Nationwide Recall Of Lo/Ovral®-28 And Norgestrel/Ethinyl Estradiol Tablets Due To Possibility Of Inexact Tablet Counts Or Out Of Sequence Tablets

NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Pfizer Inc. announced today that it has voluntarily recalled 14 lots of Lo/Ovral®-28 (norgestrel and ethinyl estradiol)Tablets and 14 lots of Norgestrel and Ethinyl Estradiol Tablets (generic)for customers in the U.S. market. An investigation by Pfizer found that some blister packs may contain an inexact count of inert or active ingredient tablets and that the tablets may be out of sequence. The cause was identified and corrected immediately.

These products are oral contraceptives indicated for the prevention of pregnancy in women who elect to use oral contraceptives as a method of … (Continued...)

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...)

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...)

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...)

In the case challenging the California Medicare nurse anesthetist physician supervision requirement opt-out signed by then governor  Schwarzenegger, California Society of Anesthesiologists et al. v. Arnold Schwarzenegger as Governor, all of the briefs and responses have been filed and oral arguments (after some rescheduling) have been finally set for February 14, 2012.

One party will not be feeling the love when the decision comes down from this Valentine’s Day event. Read the docket HERE.… (Continued...)

Kermit Gosnell, 70, the West Philadelphia abortionist facing state capital murder charges, pleaded not guilty to federal drug charges yesterday.

Gosnell is presently awaiting a March 2013 trial date in state court, charged with murder in the 2009 death of a Virginia woman undergoing an abortion and with killing seven live newborns by plunging scissors into their necks and severing their spinal cords. Investigators believe he may have killed hundreds of infants in the same manner.

Last month, federal prosecutors charged Gosnell with using his women’s medical clinic as a pill mill to dispense thousands of prescriptions for highly-addictive narcotics to cash-paying customers between 2008 and January 2010. The indictment said Gosnell distributed hundreds of thousands of oxycodone and alprazolam (Xanax) pills and 19,000 bottles of cough syrup containing codeine during that time. Many of the drugs were later sold on the street for cash, prosecutors said. Gosnell faces a … (Continued...)

Dr. Nicola Riley and her former colleague, Dr. Steven Brigham of Voohees, NJ, were indicted in Maryland last month under a 2005 law that allows murder charges to be brought in the death of a viable fetus. Riley, a resident of Utah, was arrested there Dec. 28 on a fugitive warrant and was held in a local county jail until being extradited to Maryland on Thursday. She appeared in a Maryland courtroom for the first time on Friday. Brigham, a resident of New Jersey, was arraigned in Maryland on Jan. 6th.

The 2005 law is similar to laws found in 37 other states which are generally intended to allow criminal charges in cases of assault or murder involving pregnant women when a fetus is killed as a result. This is the first time the law has been used in Md to charge a physician who performed an abortion. The law … (Continued...)

In 2009 he was nearly the highest compensated university president in the country, raking in nearly $2M in salary and other perks. Not bad considering he arrived at West Virginia Mountain State University (MSU) in  in 1990, after resigning as president of Daytona Beach Community College in Florida amid an investigation by the Florida Ethics Commission.It was alleged that he had violated Florida law for having a contractual relationship with a real estate developer who was doing business with the college. In 1991, the Ethics Commission found that Polk did violate Florida law recommending he be publicly censured, according to the Ethics Commission case report. Charles H. Polk, the longtime president of beleaguered Mountain State University, was fired Wednesday night by MSU’s board of trustees. The move does nothing however. The university’s fate is already sealed and rests in the hands of  the Higher Learning Commission. The time for a … (Continued...)

This is a bit of a departure from the usual content found on the Law Med Blog. Ten years ago I worked for a year or two at the Georgia Poison Center in Atlanta as a Poison Specialist taking calls that came into the center and advising on treatment. Calls were received from the public and also physicians and emergency rooms. One call sticks out and I have always regretted not publishing the event which occurred shortly before I left the center for another position. It involved a case of Tylenol poisoning which presented unlike any other reported case in the literature, or even known to the toxicology community in this country. A few toxicology blogs took notice of this Blog after our coverage of the toxicology in the Michael Jackson case. They may find this piece of some interest. We welcome any comments!

The call was from an … (Continued...)

 By Kurt Stone OpEdNews.com

Propofol — one of the drugs that led to Michael Jackson’s untimely death — is a short-acting, intravenously administered hypnotic agent. Known in some circles as “Milk of Amnesia,” its uses include the induction and maintenance of general anesthesia, sedation for mechanically-ventilated patients, and procedural sedation. Propofol — and its generic equivalents — has been widely and successfully administered in hospital operating rooms around the world for nearly 30 years. And, as of June 4, 2010, Teva Pharmaceuticals, the Israeli-based firm that was the major supplier of Propofol, no longer manufactures it. Today, it is almost impossible to find. 

Where has all the Propofol gone?

And while we’re at it, where has all the Doxil, Adderall, Mitomycin, Morphine Sulphate, Avalide, Ondansetron, Succinylcholine, Dextrose, B-12 and more than 200 others medicines gone? Shockingly, between 2006 and 2010, drug shortages increased by more than 200% according to a … (Continued...)

The West Virginia Board of Examiners for Registered Professional Nurses pulled no punches during a 6 hour meeting on Friday to determine the fate of Mountain State University’s embattled nursing program. While they agreed to extend Mountain State’s provisional accreditation status until March, they also warned university officials that if major fixes weren’t made to the school, the nursing board would yank MSU’s accreditation altogether.

In a medical malpractice suit filed by Robert and Mary White against Dr. Warren Leimbach II, the Supreme Court of Ohio has ruled that a claim of a lack of informed consent is a medical claim, not an issue of battery, and requires expert medical testimony to establish the material risks or dangers inherent in a procedure, and that an undisclosed risk or danger became a reality and caused injury. 

Robert White had back surgery. After surgery his back was worse than before and he was in more pain, a possibility he said his physician never mentioned.  White also said he’d never been given or signed a consent form of any kind. The surgeon did not dispute the lack of a consent form, and couldn’t specifically recall notifying the patient of the surgery’s risks, but claimed he’d done so because that’s what he always did. 

For reasons which defy explanation, … (Continued...)

Dr. Jon Norberg appeared before cameras last Friday proclaiming his innocence to allegations that he injected his wife with the powerful anesthetic propofol against her will on multiple occasions and then raped her. This was after the state of North Dakota indefinitely suspended his medical license and the surgeon’s open court no contest plea to misdemeanor sexual assault and guilty plea to felony reckless endangerment. We have discussed why Norberg’s statements are false on their face previously. Now Alonna Norberg, the pediatric emergency medicine physician wife of Jon Norberg is speaking out in a statement sent to Forum Communications.

“In all of these legal arenas, there is a factual record demonstrating that Jon Norberg used a powerful drug in an inappropriate fashion and under dangerous conditions and sexually assaulted me,” Alonna Norberg said in her statement. “I did not consent to him doing so.”

Norberg has claimed his wife … (Continued...)

[Updated with additional information, video and links to documents 1/10/12] 

We previously reported that police in Maryland have charged abortion doctors Steven Brigham, 55, of Voorhees, N.J., and Nicola Riley, 46, of Salt Lake City, Utah with a number of serious crimes including first-degree murder. Brigham faces 5 counts of the top murder charge as well as 5 counts of second-degree murder. Riley faces 1 count of first-degree murder and 1 count of second-degree murder. Both face a single count of conspiracy to commit murder. A third physician, George Shepard, 88, a resident of Maryland has had his medical license permanently revoked but has not had criminal charges filed. Brigham and Riley have both had their medical licenses suspended.

The indictments in the case were sealed however thus very few details were available. It was anticipated that once the indictments were unsealed we would gain an understanding of precisely why … (Continued...)

In what can only be described as a pathetic attempt to justify what was at best gross medical negligence and unethical behavior, and at worst chemical incapacitation for the purpose of committing serial rape, Dr. Jon Norberg, 41, of Fargo N.D. went on camera Friday, days after pleading guilty to lesser charges of felony reckless endangerment and misdemeanor sexual imposition.

If the public learned anything  about propofol  from the Michael Jackson case , it is the fact that it should NEVER be administered in someone’s home under ANY circumstances, and that it is a very dangerous drug in untrained hands. The good Dr. Norberg would have us believe that  he is somehow qualified and even experienced in the administration of propofol and that a reasonable physician might inject his wife with it over and over to treat an illness. There is not an ounce of truth in this. Not an … (Continued...)

No one can say just how many lessons former Winkler County Attorney Scott Tidwell will need before he begins to consider the obvious facts that he is not the smartest person in the room, or in possession of any sort of brilliant legal mind, but he got another one on Friday.

Tidwell was convicted in October on two counts each of felony retaliation, felony misuse of official information and misdemeanor official oppression for his role in bringing about the Winkler County Memorial Hospital whistle-blowing nurses trial. He was sentenced to four months in jail, 10 years probation and a $6,000 fine. Despite the overwhelming evidence presented against him, and his decision to present no defense whatsoever or call any witnesses, Tidwell has filed an appeal.

Part of the required appellate process requires the appellant to request the clerk of the trial court to prepare a copy of the case … (Continued...)

In a stunning development, the victim in the Fargo, N.D. ‘propofol rape’ case has stepped forward and identified herself to the public. She is none other than Alonna Norberg, the wife of the accused, now guilty, Dr. Jon Norberg who entered an Alford plea of guilt in court yesterday. For months the only description of the victim had been a ‘woman who was not a patient’ of Dr. Norberg.

After Dr. Norberg’s plea he made statements to the media which were false according to Mrs. Norberg who says she has come forward to set the public record straight. “I would have preferred that these matters remain private to shield my children, but the legal cases and news coverage make it important that I correct the public record,” she said in a statement released by her attorney. According to court documents, she has filed for a divorce. However her husband claimed … (Continued...)

 London-area aluminum trader Richard Boorman was 29 when he flew to Las Vegas for a bachelor party in 2005. He collapsed at a Vegas casino and was pronounced dead at Desert Springs Hospital.  The Clark County coroner’s office autopsied and sent Boorman’s body to a mortuary for embalming so he could be sent home.

When the coroner cited acute cocaine and alcohol intoxication as the cause of Boorman’s death, his relatives were eager to have a second autopsy conducted in England. They were unable to get a complete one, however, because when Boorman’s body came home in July 2005, his heart, brain, liver, kidneys and lungs were not with him. They examined the body because a U.K. autopsy is standard procedure when a British citizen dies abroad.

So, the family sued the mortuary and Clark County in federal court. The family has now agreed to accept a $350,000 settlement after … (Continued...)

Conrad Murray, convicted in November of involuntary manslaughter in the death of Michael Jackson has been asked by the California Medical Board to surrender his license, an official said Tuesday. Murray was formally asked on Dec. 29 to surrender the medical certificate as a result of his felony conviction, said Dan Wood, a spokesman for the medical board. Murray, who was sentenced to four years behind bars, is currently in jail and has until the middle of this month to return the certificates, Wood said. Following that, the California Medical Board will at a later date move to revoke Murray’s medical license according to Wood.… (Continued...)

The physician at the center of a criminal case where he is accused of drugging and sexually assaulting a woman has plead guilty to felony reckless endangerment under an Alford plea in a deal reached with prosecutors. Jon Norberg, 41, of Fargo was accused of raping a woman who was not his patient after administering the anesthetic propofol to her more than 30 times over an 18 month period. 

An Alford plea means that the defendant does not admit his guilt but agrees that if the case goes to trial the prosecutor has enough evidence for a jury to find him guilty. Regardless, it results in a finding of guilty by the court and is considered a guilty plea.  Norberg also plead guilty to a reduced misdemeanor count of sexual assault.

Prosecutors were likely faced with some serious problems had they wanted to take this to trial under a rape … (Continued...)

BISMARCK, N.D. — An administrative law judge has recommended a Fargo doctor’s medical license be suspended indefinitely for frequently giving propofol, a powerful sedative and anesthetic and the drug that killed Michael Jackson, to a woman in his home. Judge Allen Hoberg determined that Jon David Norberg, 41, engaged in the “performance of unprofessional conduct likely to deceive, defraud, or harm the public” as described in state law. Norberg is out on bail after being charged with gross sexual imposition and felony reckless endangerment. The North Dakota Board of Medical Examiners will consider whether to suspend his medical license indefinitely next week.

His accuser was not a patient of his and she alleges the incidents took place at his home on multiple occasions over a period of 18 months.

In a prepared filing, Norberg told the board he used the drug to relieve the woman’s pain and help her to … (Continued...)

Baltimore may have its own version of the “Shop of Horrors” abortion clinic run by Dr. Kermit  Gosnell in Philadelphia. Gosnell has been charged with multiple counts of first degree murder and is in jail awaiting trial and faces the death penalty.

And now, under what are disturbingly similar circumstances to those in Philly, police in Maryland have charged doctors Steven Chase Brigham, 55, of Voorhees, N.J., and Nicola Irene Riley, 46, of Salt Lake City, Utah with a number of serious crimes including first-degree murder. Brigham faces 5 counts of the top murder charge as well as 5 counts of second-degree murder. Riley faces 1 count of first-degree murder and 1 count of second-degree murder. Both face a single count of conspiracy to commit murder. Brigham is currently in custody at the Camden County Jail in New Jersey and Riley is in custody at the Salt Lake County Jail … (Continued...)

From the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists.

Iowa Nurse Anesthesia Safer than Ever 10 Years After Physician Supervision Requirement Removed

Recent studies confirm safety, cost-effectiveness of Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists

Park Ridge, Ill.—Ten years ago, in a historic, precedent-setting move, Iowa became the first state to opt out of the federal physician supervision requirement for nurse anesthetists. Recent studies have confirmed the safety and cost-effectiveness of Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNAs) without physician supervision.

In December 2001, less than one month after the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) published its anesthesia care rule granting state governors the ability to opt out of the physician supervision requirement, then-Iowa Governor Thomas Vilsack sent a letter to CMS informing the agency that “it is in the best interest of the state of Iowa to opt out of the current physician supervision requirement….” Since then, not a single report of a … (Continued...)