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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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…)

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…)

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…)

Dipak Desai Now Facing Federal Charges But Will He Ever Be Tried?

April 29, 2011 lawmed 1 Comment

Dr. Dipak Desai is in more trouble. As expected, a federal grand jury has now indicted him and his chief operating officer for medicare fraud. These charges are in addition to the long list of state criminal charges pending against him. Desai is currently in a court ordered mental health facility for evaluation of his mental condition since being found incompetent to stand trial due to brain damage from a stroke. If and when Desai is arraigned on these charges he will have to be found competent to stand trial in federal court also. It will be interesting to see if the federal court accepts the Nevada state court’s finding of incompetence or whether they hold their own competency hearings. Just like in state court, a criminal defendant in federal court must be competent in order to stand trial. However civil trials can proceed regardless. Interestingly it is not the … (Continued…)

Broke: Dr Desai Victims Unlikely to Collect in Nevada Hepatitis C Outbreak

April 09, 2011 lawmed No comments

Before his current status as a revoked licensed physician and court ordered resident in the secured Lake Crossing psychiatric facility, Dr. Dipak Desai was making money hand over fist from the endoscopy centers he owned in the Las Vegas, Nevada area. Now, faced with hundreds of lawsuits in the Nevada Hepatitis C outbreak, he says he is broke. Interesting fact: Desai served on the Nevada State Board of Medical Examiners from 1993-2001.

From the Las Vegas Review Journal, By Jeff Garmin

Desai legal fees leave little for ex-patients

Dr. Dipak Desai, the bankrupt gastroenterologist at the heart of a hepatitis C outbreak, has piled up $2.4 million in legal fees that are cutting deep into the dwindling assets left for his creditors, including the thousands of former patients suing him.

In a written opinion this week, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Mike Nakagawa said the physician’s reported estate at the

… (Continued…)

Nevada Urologist’s Patients Advised Get Tested For Hepatitis

March 28, 2011 lawmed No comments

There is another Hepatitis/HIV scare in Nevada. Dr. Michael Kaplan has had his license to practice suspended and his patients have been notified they need to get tested. It all stems from the doctor reusing single use needle guides during biopsy procedures. He has since claimed that the vendor told him it was OK to reuse them. No infections have yet been identified. This incident follows the recent, much larger, Hepatitis scare at Las Vegas area endoscopy clinics.

From the LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

BY PAUL HARASIM

Patients who underwent prostate biopsies by Dr. Michael Kaplan could be at risk for blood-borne diseases that include HIV and hepatitis C, the head of the Southern Nevada Health District said Tuesday.

Kaplan is accused of reusing medical devices that were intended for only a single use during the procedures, said Dr. Lawrence Sands, chief health officer for the district.

After a joint investigation

… (Continued…)

Nevada Dr. Desai Led In Handcuffs To Mental Hospital

March 21, 2011 lawmed No comments

As previously ordered by the court after being found incompetent to stand trial, Dr. Dipak Desai has been placed in custody and taken to a psychiatric facility to determine if and how he can be rehabilitated back to competency.

From The Las Vegas Sun

Doctor At Center Of Hepatitis C Scare Taken Into Custody

Dipak Desai, the man who was at the center of the hepatitis C scare that swirled through Southern Nevada in 2007 and 2008, was taken into state custody Thursday morning.

Desai made a brief appearance in Clark County District Judge Jackie Glass’s courtroom with his attorneys, was placed into handcuffs and led off to eventually be taken to a state mental evaluation facility in Northern Nevada.

Glass ruled Feb. 8 that he was incompetent and ordered that he be treated in hopes he can be returned to competency to stand trial.

Psychiatrists and physicians will

… (Continued…)

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