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Medico-Legal
Midwife accused of ‘ignoring pleas’ to admit mother to private hospital
The mother of a baby born with severe brain damage testified last Friday that she was taken to the wrong hospital by her now...
Eastern Cape MEC hit with another negligence claim
A R5m medical negligence claim is to be launched against the Eastern Cape Health MEC after the Eastern Cape High Court (Bhisho) last week...
Inquiry after baby lands on floor during birth
A Limpopo mother from whose pleas for help were dismissed when she went into labour, and whose baby was born and fell to the...
Victims of rapist surgeon in child abuse trial question apathy
Members of a campaign group formed by victims of France’s most prolific paedophile, a former surgeon whose trial ended this week, are outraged at...
Surgeon sued after removing woman’s kidney instead of spleen
A US woman is suing a surgeon and a hospital after a medical mistake that cost her a healthy left kidney, with Wendy Rappaport...
Lawsuits mount as weight-loss drug users lose vision
More than a dozen lawsuits have been filed on behalf of weight-loss drug users who claim that popular weight-loss medications like Ozempic have caused a...
Midwife blames baby’s cerebral palsy on mother’s infection
Midwife Yolande Maritz Fouchee, facing 14 charges in the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) – including one of culpable homicide – and accused of causing...
Court orders ban on Adcock using painkiller’s name
The Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) has barred Adcock Ingram from selling and distributing its new painkiller, Lenbucod, finding it infringed Aspen’s Mybucod trademark rights...
$750m settlement for hundreds of sex abuse claims against gynae
Prestigious US institutions Columbia University and New York-Presbyterian Hospital have agreed to a $750m settlement of hundreds of sexual abuse claims by patients of disgraced...
Tiger Brands to settle some listeriosis claims – seven years later
Although Tiger Brands’ liability for the listeriosis outbreak in 2017/18 has yet to be determined in court, the company has agreed to settle certain...
PE woman still waiting for payment after decade-long negligence battle
Five years after winning a 10-year negligence battle in the Supreme Court of Appeal against the Eastern Cape Health Department, Felicia Meyers is still...
US man sues for blindness after taking Ozempic
An American who lost his sight after taking Ozempic for his diabetes is suing Novo Nordisk for what he says is a failure to...
No bail for fake surgeon charged with woman’s death after implant removal
A man accused of posing as a plastic surgeon has been indicted on manslaughter charges after a woman he operated on died after a...
Woman’s jaw broken during tooth extraction
A British woman has received a £10 000 out-of-court settlement after her jaw was broken during a tooth extraction, leading to a series of...
Murder probe after man’s death post surgery ‘without consent’
North West police have launched a murder investigation into the death of a Mozambican mineworker during a high-risk procedure at a private Rustenburg hospital,...
Patient’s Groote Schuur ordeal prompts departmental probe
Western Cape Health has launched an inquiry into Groote Schuur Hospital (GSH) after accusations of negligence and emotional abuse by a patient transferred there...
Court grants widow right to dead husband’s sperm
A widow has won a legal case confirming she is entitled to use the frozen sperm of her dead husband to have another child,...
Judge allows expert testimony in suit against US baby formula firm
A Chicago federal judge last week said she would allow expert testimony that a premature baby cow’s milk-based formula – made by Mead Johnson,...
Another patient claims Headache Clinic doctor was negligent
Former Headache Clinic specialist Dr Elliot Shevel (81), facing murder charges after a patient died after one of his treatments in 2021, has been...
Limpopo doctor accused of attempted rape of patient
The Limpopo Health Department is investigating – in tandem with a police inquiry – after a doctor allegedly attempted to rape a patient at George...
Mandatory mediation for Gauteng medico-legal and other cases
Gauteng Judge President Dustan Mlambo has issued a directive that all civil matters with no triable issues should be referred to a mandatory mediation...
Lilly sues compounders over copies of weight-loss drugs
Four American compounders who were selling unapproved products containing tirzepatide are being sued by Eli Lilly, which is accusing them off selling the knockoffs...
US pharmacy chain forks out $350m in opioid script settlement
Walgreens, the second largest pharmacy chain in the United States, has agreed to pay up to $350m in a settlement with the Department of...
Health officials trained to handle medico-legal mediation
With medico-legal claims against state health facilities continuing to rise, the Health Department was moving ahead with plans to offer mediation before cases reached...
Controversial Cape Town oncologist may continue to practise, rules judge
A group of cancer patients who took legal action when a private hospital terminated a 15-year relationship with a controversial oncologist has triumphed in...
German palliative doctor charged with 15 counts of murder
Prosecutors have charged a doctor in Berlin – suspected of administering lethal amounts of medications to palliative patients – with 15 counts of murder.
They...
Weedkiller to settle suit over Parkinson’s claims
After thousands of lawsuits accusing its paraquat weedkiller of causing Parkinson’s disease, manufacturer Syngenta has entered into an agreement aimed at settling large swaths of those claims.
A...
HPCSA penalties for verbal abuse, leaving patients to die on roadside
Using unacceptable language, not communicating a diagnosis with a patient, and withholding treatment from a patient who subsequently died on the roadside were among...
Court upholds dismissal of doctor who used cocaine
The Western Cape Labour Court has upheld the dismissal of a Hermanus doctor for alleged cocaine use, disagreeing with the arbitrator’s finding that it...
Judge rejects Eastern Cape’s bid to pay damages in instalments
An Eastern Cape High Court judge has drawn the line regarding the provincial MEC’s offer to pay off – in instalments – the nearly...
US jury awards $14m to women molested by their doctor
A United States jury has awarded $14m to three women who were sexually assaulted by their doctor and who subsequently sued him and the...
Hospital probes how elderly patient was discharged with bruises
The family of Elizabeth Fosa (87) from Khutsong South is demanding answers after she was discharged from Carletonville Hospital with severe bruises on her...
UK’s infected blood scandal victims dying while waiting for payouts
Campaigners are seething as victims of Britain’s infected blood scandal die at a rate of two a week while waiting for compensation, saying payouts...
Cape Town surgeon suspended for alleged harassment
A Cape Town surgeon has been removed from his Panorama Hospital rooms after allegations of inappropriate conduct from a patient and harassment of female...
US court denies fired nurse’s bid to reinstate licence
The Tennessee Court of Appeals has denied former nurse RaDonda Vaught’s bid to have her licence reinstated, after her conviction in March 2022 of...
Gynaecologist not at fault for perforation, judge says
A Cape Town woman has been ordered to pay part of the legal costs of a case – which the judge dismissed – in...
Purdue Pharma files new bankruptcy plan in opioid case
Bankrupt drugmaker Purdue Pharma, owned by the wealthy Sackler family, filed a new bankruptcy plan on Tuesday, a major step towards finalising a proposed...
Cerebral palsy damages award too high, court rules
Three judges described as overly-generous the R28.8m award by the KZN High Court (Pietermaritzburg) to the mother of a child with cerebral palsy.
The KwaZulu-Natal...
Court gives the nod to surrogate for sixth C-section
The Gauteng High Court said there is no specific rule or regulation in the country guiding or regulating the maximum time a woman can...
Nurses ignore teen mum who gives birth to twins alone
An Ekurhuleni hospital has denied ignoring the pleas for help from a 15-year-old girl who gave birth to twins on her own. Neither of...