Forensics Talk

Prosecutors Say Jackson's Doctor Changed Story

LOS ANGELES – "The doctor charged in the death of Michael Jackson tried to change his story about his actions involving the pop star, telling his own experts in the upcoming trial a different story than he told police, prosecutors said Monday.

Deputy District Attorneys David Walgren and Deborah Brazil filed a motion asking a judge to bar new claims made by defendant Dr. Conrad Murray.

They said he apparently made the new assertions in conversation with two doctors who will testify on his behalf in the case.

The accounts were revealed in letters from the experts, Dr. Paul White, an anesthesiologist, and Dr. Joseph Haraszti, a psychiatrist and hospital director.

Prosecutors believe Murray spoke to the experts after a preliminary hearing in January that focused on his statements to police after Jackson's death in June 2009.

The motion quoted Murray as telling the experts he left Jackson's bedroom to make a phone call, even though he initially said he left Jackson to go to the bathroom.

Experts also said Murray claimed to have experience using propofol — the powerful anesthetic that killed Jackson — as a sedative, even though Murray didn't make such a claim in police interviews. . . " Read More

 For a review, check out my initial report/opinion on Michael Jackson's death in archive pages to the left.

Pregnant Colorado Woman Mistakenly Given Abortion Pill

 This was an absolutely horrendous mistake! The medicine, methotrexate, is usually used for treatment of life-threatening Cancer only. It's extremely dangerous. Pharmacists and technicians are required to follow standards of care when filling and distributing medicines.

   It's interesting to note that Safeway readily admitted and apologised for the mistake. I'm sure it was appreciated. However, an apology is not going to protect this woman or her unborn child.

Important Warning:

"Methotrexate may cause very serious side effects. Some side effects of methotrexate may cause death. You should only take methotrexate to treat life-threatening cancer, or certain other conditions that are very severe and that cannot be treated with other medications. Talk to your doctor about the risks of taking methotrexate for your condition."

     It can cause liver damage, lung damage, damage to stomach or intestines; can decrease blood cells made by the bone marrow, lower your immunity, can cause life-threatening skin reactions. And, of course: " If you or your partner become pregnant, call your doctor immediately. Methotrexate may harm the fetus."

  As with all medicines, please double check carefully before taking. If you question the medicine, call your pharmacist or physician immediately before taking the medicine.

 AOL News

Feb 8, 2011 – 7:03 PM

     "FORT LUPTON, Colo. - A Colorado woman who is six weeks pregnant says a pharmacist at a grocery store mistakenly gave her an abortion drug instead of an antibiotic and now she fears she will lose her unborn child. Mareena Silva tells Denver's KMGH-TV that the pharmacist at the Safeway in Fort Lupton gave her methotrexate last week. The drug, intended for another woman, is used in chemotherapy and to terminate early-stage pregnancies.

Silva says she took a pill and checked the bottle after becoming sick. She was rushed to the hospital.

Doctors say Silva could miscarry or have a baby with birth defects. . . " Read More

Does Sorry Work? The Impact of Apology Laws on Medical Malpractice

   Here's an interesting study abstract by Benjamen Ho, at Cornell University. A study was done concerning whether apologies made by physicians are effective in preventing or reducing litigation.

   This comes as no surprise to me. As a nurse who has worked in the health care field for over 30 years now, as well as being a patient myself, I've seen, time and again, that saying, I'm sorry, actually works.

    Patients do understand that physicians are only human. Saying, Sorry, and trying to correct the problem, goes a long way to increasing that understanding. Being ignored doesn't.

  It only leads to anger, resentment, and an overwhelming feeling of helplessness and despair, in a patient who had once placed a great deal of trust in his physician's hands.

   It's also important that physicians take the time to actually listen to their patients. I can't count the number of times patients have expressed their frustration at their physician for not taking the time to talk AND listen to them. Patients are a whole lot more forgiving if they feel like they've been treated with consideration and respect all along.

  A related study was completed many years ago, which reviewed the primary reasons why patients sued their physicians. The results indicated that it wasn't so much the injury itself that increased the chances of litigation. But, it was the patient's anger at an unresponsive, unapologetic physician, which finally led to the patients filing suit.

Health Law Prof Blog

Benjamin Ho
Cornell University - Johnson School of Management

Elaine Liu
University of Houston


October 1, 2010

Johnson School Research Paper Series No. 04-2011

Abstract:     
Apologies made by physicians for adverse medical events have been identified as a mitigating factor in whether patients decide to litigate. However, doctors are socialized to avoid apologies because apologies admit guilt and invite lawsuits. An apology law, which specifies that a physician’s apology is inadmissible in court, is written to encourage patient-physician communication. Building on a simple model, we examine whether apology laws at the State level have an impact on malpractice lawsuits and settlements. Using a difference-in-differences estimation, we find that State-level apology laws could expedite the settlement process. Using individual level data, we also find that apology laws have the greatest reduction in average payment size and settlement time in cases involving more severe patient outcomes.

 

Working Paper Series

Date posted: January 21, 2011

 

UK News

Paedophile policeman who preyed on children for 11 years is jailed for life

By Daily Mail Reporter

     "A former policeman has been branded 'every parent's worst nightmare' after committing a string of sex offences against children.

Daniel Lishman has been jailed for life and will serve a minimum of 11 years before being considered for parole.

He used jobs as a mobile dog-groomer and a TV licensing officer to help him carry out at least eight offences and also posed as a policeman to indecently assault two young girls, Coventry Crown Court heard."

Cuffed: Daniel Lishman is believed to have committed his first crime while working as an officer for Northamptonshire Police

     " The 37-year-old, of Thorpe Street, Raunds, Northamptonshire, was convicted at previous hearings of 26 counts and asked for four others to be considered.

The charges, including one of rape and 12 of sexual assault, related to a total of 13 victims, including three with disabilities or learning difficulties, as well as hundreds of indecent images of children.

Lishman, who was a serving police constable when his first crime was committed, was arrested in April last year after attacking a 12-year-old girl while pretending to check on a boiler at an address in Southam, Warwickshire.

Judge Peter Carr was told that Lishman, who served with Northamptonshire Police between 1995 and 2002, was linked to a string of other offences after detectives who arrested him found a camera memory card hidden in one of his socks.

The card contained images showing Lishman posing indecently near an eight-year-old girl, who had been 'blindfolded' using a pair of taped-up goggles in the back of his dog-grooming van.

Passing sentence at Coventry Crown Court, Judge Carr told Lishman: 'About ten years or so ago, you began what can only be described as your systematic sexual abuse of your victims, who were in the main very young children.'"

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1350330/Paedophile-policeman-Daniel-Lishman-preyed-children-jailed-life.html#ixzz1C3XtSGzU

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Mother gives birth in hospital toilet bowl as midwives 'ignore desperate calls for help'

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 9:22 AM on 25th January 2011 

     " A mother who gave birth to her daughter in a hospital toilet said staff had ignored her desperate screams for help.

Sharon Willoughby, 40, and her partner Richard Sum said they also rang the emergency alarm but waited in vain for 15 minutes because staff thought 'she wanted a cup of tea'.

Miss Willoughby had gone into the birthing unit at King's Mill Hospital in  Nottinghamshire in November last year and was given drugs to induce the birth."

     "'Desperate calls': Sharon Willoughby, 40, and her partner Richard Sum, 38, with their ten-week-old daughter Felicity at their home in Sutton-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire

But she claims she was not internally examined and went to the bathroom because of excruciating pain a few hours later that evening.

She quickly gave birth and Richard had to scoop his daughter Felicity out of the toilet bowl.

They claim they called out for help and pulled the emergency cord but no one came.

Richard then helped Sharon back from the toilet - carrying the child still attached by the cord - before rushing to get help as Sharon was losing blood.

Now the pair are considering legal action after the blunder.

"Sharon believes staff and midwives ignored her when she told them the pain was increasing."

     "'We were there for 15 minutes holding the baby, pulling the alarm - but nothing happened'

She said: 'It was very frightening, horrible. I don't know if they were bored with the job but they didn't take any notice.

'They were cold, so it was already not a nice experience at all.

'Felicity was still attached with Richard holding her, it was slow progress.

'We didn't know what was happening, no one was coming. We were later told they thought I was calling for a cup of tea.'"

     "Sharon, who has had two other children, needed a blood transfusion because of the amount of blood she lost and was in hospital for three more days.

He said: 'Sharon went to the bathroom and started screaming. I went in and as she crouched down I saw something come out.

'We didn't know what it was but Sharon felt the pain go. Our baby was in the toilet and Sharon looked round and realised she had given birth.

'We were there for 15 minutes holding the baby, pulling the alarm - but nothing happened.'"

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1350111/Mother-gives-birth-hospital-toilet-bowl-midwives-ignore-calls-help.html#ixzz1C3bokDS2

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SCANDAL OF 50,000 DEMENTIA VICTIMS TORN FROM FAMILIES

 

 

Jeremy Hughes, chief executive of the Alzheimer’s Society, says it's a travesty

Tuesday January 25,2011

 

By Victoria Fletcher, Health Editor

Have your say(0)

TENS

Read more:

 

"TENS of thousands of patients with dementia are being forced into care residences long before they need to go, a leading charity has claimed.

 

Around 50,000 are receiving so little help from council carers, that their loved ones are being forced to put them into a home."

     "A report by the Alzheimer’s Society has revealed a shocking picture of the fate of dementia patients, with many left mal­nourished, in soiled incontinence pads and bedridden because of the poor service provided by private and state-funded home carers."

     " One woman reported how staff from a private firm of carers ate her husband’s food and slept instead of helping to clean, change and feed him.

Councils around the country are slashing spending on care for the elderly. Many have already made it harder for families to qualify for home help, leaving children and spouses with no choice but to put their loved one in a home or spend their savings on buying private home help. Jeremy Hughes, chief executive of the Alzheimer’s Society, said: “It is a travesty that so many people with dementia are being forced to struggle without the care and support they need.”'

     "There are about 750,000 people in Britain with dementia, half of whom have Alzheimer’s disease. About 500,000 are cared for in the community by their spouse or their children.

But many elderly spouses need help to feed, wash and change the bedclothes of their loved ones as they themselves are too weak.

Local councils often send in home carers to do this, who they employ directly or contract in from private firms. But the quality of service varies wildly. Some carers are almost untrained while others have only a few minutes with each family, and hardly have time to get patients out of bed with no hope of helping to wash or feed them. . . "'

 

Read more: http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/225097/Scandal-of-50-000-dementia-victims-torn-from-familiesScandal-of-50-000-dementia-victims-torn-from-families#ixzz1C3hHDK29

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Doctor Arrested in Whistle-Blowing Case

NY Times

By KEVIN SACK

Published: December 23, 2010

    " Texas officials have filed criminal charges against a West Texas physician over accusations that they say he orchestrated against two nurses who had filed a complaint against him with the state medical board.

The physician, Dr. cr., who practices at Winkler County Memorial Hospital in Kermit, Tex., was charged late Tuesday by the state attorney general’s office with retaliation and misuse of official information, the latter being the same charge that was leveled against the nurses. Both of the charges against Dr. Arafiles are third-degree felonies that carry a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

In a case that alarmed advocates for whistle-blower protections, the two nurses were fired by the hospital and prosecuted in 2009 after anonymously reporting Dr. Arafiles for a variety of surgical and prescribing practices. After learning of the Texas Medical Board investigation, Dr. Arafiles consulted the sheriff in Winkler County, a personal friend, who seized the nurses’ computers and found their letter to the board, which included patient case numbers. Kermit, a town of 7,000 people about 400 miles west of Dallas, is the county seat.

The charge against one of the nurses, Vickilyn Galle, was dropped before trial. A jury took less than an hour to acquit the other nurse, Anne Mitchell, in February. The nurses agreed this summer to split a $750,000 financial settlement from the county.

The medical board has already charged Dr. Arafiles, 58, with a number of civil violations related to the substandard care the nurses described. He is accused of suturing a rubber scissor tip to a patient’s finger, using an unapproved olive oil solution on a patient with a highly resistant bacterial infection, failing to diagnose a case of appendicitis and conducting a skin graft without surgical privileges. . . " Read More

"Couple Get Long Prison Terms in Kansas 'Pill Mill' Case"

Sentencing Law and Policy

October 21, 2010

     "The title of this post is the headline of this local article providing the outcome in a high-profile federal health care fraud case.  Here are the details:

Linda Schneider should carry most of the responsibility for her husband’s patients who overdosed and died, said a federal judge who described the deaths as “an avoidable tragedy motivated by greed.” But Stephen Schneider, a former physician, could have stopped it, U.S. District Judge Monti Belot said Wednesday as he sentenced the couple.

Belot gave Linda Schneider 33 years in prison and Stephen Schneider 30 years for their practices of prescribing painkillers at their Haysville clinic. Stephen Schneider is 57; Linda Schneider is 52. There is no parole from federal prison.

Belot said Linda Schneider, a licensed practical nurse who managed the clinic, set up an operation to make money off the quantity of patients, not the quality of care. “I have the distinct belief that had she not been involved in the operation of the clinic, or had she approached her role there in a professional and responsible way, none of us would be here,” Belot said, explaining her higher sentence.

Instead, Belot said, the evidence had shown her to be “a scheming, manipulative, uncaring criminal who believed, erroneously, that she was smart enough to get away with it.”' Read More

Medication Error Verdicts

Maryland Injury Lawyer Blog

Posted On: August 12, 2010 by Ronald V. Miller, Jr.

Check out the latest Medication Error Verdicts from Ronald V. Miller's excellent Maryland Injury Lawyer Blog:

     " A new Jury Verdict Research study found that the average verdict in an improper medication case is $3,539,541. The median, which many consider to be a more accurate number, is $1.2 million. Verdicts ranged from $2,074 to $35,500,000. But only 28% of medication error plaintiffs recover at trial. I think the problem in many medication error cases where plaintiffs do not prevail is causation because sometimes the medication error compounds a larger pre-existing health condition and it is difficult for the jury and the doctors to sort it out.

Incredibly, 1.5 million people are victims of medication errors every year, according to an Institute of Medicine study from a few years ago. Of course, most of these errors are relatively harmless. We get frequent calls from people who are justifiably angry that such a careless error was made. But, more often than not, they don't have a case because they were not significantly injured (in the malpractice sense of the word, anyway). Still, more people die annually from medication errors than from on-the-job injuries, according to the National Coordinating Council for Medication Error Reporting and Prevention, and the extra medical costs incurred from improper medication errors each year is a whopping $3.5 billion. . . " Read More