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Medico-Legal
Las Vegas doctor on $95m fraud charges in skin substitute scheme
A Nevada wound care specialist, Dr Stephen Dubin, has been accused of cheating Medicare by applying unneeded, expensive wound coverings to seniors, and using...
Stellenbosch doctor facing HPSCA probe killed in car crash
Embattled Stellenbosch TV doctor and radiologist Pieter Henning was killed in a car crash in Potchefstroom last week, after his vehicle slammed into a...
Gauteng Health denies blame for patient’s blindness
Claims that broken and dysfunctional equipment at a hospital eye clinic was responsible for a patient being left blind in one eye have been...
Listeriosis class action trundles on
Although Tiger Brands had offered a settlement in May 2025 over the 2017 listeriosis scandal, and subsequent class action lawsuit, one of the complainants...
US medical school forks out millions in deal over urologist’s abuse
A leading New York medical school, Weill Cornell Medicine, has resolved a years-long federal criminal investigation into its handling of a former urologist’s sexual...
Doctor on manslaughter charge after fatal ‘heart protocol’ ceremony
A US judge has ordered a physician charged in the death of a woman during what prosecutors describe as a “heart protocol ceremony” to...
‘Dr Death’ to face HPCSA after High Court appeal bid fails
The HPCSA will go ahead with its second disciplinary hearing of Dr Wouter Basson (‘Dr Death’), linked to four charges dating back to the...
North West Health to pay for teacher’s brain damage
A previous ruling that dismissed a medical negligence claim – brought by a teacher who suffered permanent brain damage after delays in emergency treatment...
Indian health staff suspended over paediatric HIV cases
Pakistan has suspended 37 health officials, including doctors, after a mass HIV outbreak among children, reports The Lancet. At least 78 children contracted HIV...
J&J talc deal offer could end decade of litigation
Johnson & Johnson said on Monday it would pay an estimated $5.5bn to resolve tens of thousands of lawsuits alleging its baby powder and other...
Legal action after Limpopo mother’s womb removed during Caesarean
Lawyers have taken up the cudgels in the case of a young Limpopo mother who says doctors removed her womb during childbirth without her...
US foot doctor’s rubbing alcohol error causes chemical burns, necrosis
A US doctor is accused of injecting rubbing alcohol instead of pain blockers into a woman’s toes before removing her toenails, causing severe and...
MEC to pay damages after 20-year birth negligence ruling overturned
The previous dismissal of a negligence claim linked to childbirth has been overturned by a KwaZulu-Natal High Court (Pietermaritzburg) judge – after an appeal...
Life sentence for German palliative doctor who murdered 15 patients
A doctor has been sentenced by a Berlin court to life behind bars on charges of murdering 15 of his patients who were under...
US CEO gets six years, fined $1m, for flogging millions of stimulants online
Two executives from San Francisco-based telehealth provider Done Global have been sentenced to years in prison for a $90m pill-mill scheme involving amphetamine/dextroamphetamine salts...
Repeat offender gynae fails in SCA bid to restore hospital admission
An appeal by obstetrician and gynaecologist Dr Ganes Anil Ramdhin that sought to legally force Rondebosch Medical Centre (RMC) to restore his hospital admission...
British doctor denies sexually assaulting 45 patients, including children
A former doctor in the United Kingdom has denied 45 counts of sexual assault against hospital patients, including children, and pleaded not guilty to...
Thousands of Roundup cases teeter after Supreme Court decision
The United States Supreme Court has restricted a massive wave of lawsuits claiming manufacturer Monsanto had a duty to warn consumers of alleged cancer...
Doctor, hospital sued after implanting heart valve upside down
The parents of a teenager in the United States were told she was likely to die – days after what should have been a...
Faulty spine implant recall may mean major surgery for thousands
The global recall of a spinal implant – with recommendations from the manufacturers for patients to undergo urgent X-rays – may lead to thousands...
US nurse faces decades in prison for opioid scripts
A Tennessee nurse practitioner has been convicted in the US for prescribing nearly 1m opioid pills to almost 1 000 patients over about a...
Pretoria midwife sentenced to 23 years in jail
Pretoria East midwife Yolande Maritz Fouchee will spend 23 years behind bars for her negligent practices that led to the tragic deaths and disabilities...
MEC coughs up for hysterectomy in negligence case
The Gauteng MEC for Health has been ordered by the Supreme Court to pay damages to a woman whose womb was removed after complications...
Judge orders punitive costs over listeriosis case ‘ineptitude’
The National Health Laboratory Services and the National Institute of Communicable Diseases failed to meet the expected constitutional standards in the long-running listeriosis case,...
Pretoria midwife ‘lacks remorse’, court told in sentencing hearing
Former midwife Yolande Maritz Fouchee (48), who was convicted of culpable homicide and multiple assault charges, is to be sentenced today (Thursday) in the...
SAHRC to probe Cape man’s HIV misdiagnosis
A formal complaint has been lodged with the SA Human Rights Commission by a man who was misdiagnosed with HIV a quarter of a...
US woman dies after 10-hour plastic surgery goes wrong
The widower of a US woman who died after undergoing a mammoth 10-hour plastic surgery session that included a BBL and breast augmentation is...
Top Swiss cardiac hospital linked to dozens of patient deaths
One of Switzerland’s best known and largest facilities, University Hospital Zurich, has had its reputation besmirched in an unfolding scandal in which its own...
Hospital, doctors sued after ICU treatment via WhatsApp
A Rustenburg hospital and three doctors are being sued by a father for the death of his daughter in the ICU, whom he alleges...
HPCSA to consider syringe ‘evidence’ in radiologist’s drug abuse probe
The Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) has been accused of dragging its heels in probing the case of the Stellenbosch doctor accused...
Doctors' heirs can be held liable for medical negligence – Delhi court
In a significant ruling that clarifies the law on medical negligence, consumer law and tort jurisprudence (legal reasoning behind establishing liability), the New Delhi...
MEC supports accusers as doctor in court on sexual assault charges
A Newcastle doctor, who was arrested last week at Madadeni Hospital and accused of sexually assaulting patients, will not only face the law in...
Doctor's sexual assault case postponed as more victims questioned
Former Gqeberha endocrinologist Dr Gregory Hough’s case has been postponed to allow the court to conduct further consultations with the women he’s accused of...
Medico-legal claims drop, but state's huge burden remains
While payouts for medical negligence claims against the state have dropped over the past few years, billions of rands are still being paid out...
KZN doctor charged for sexual assaults on patients
A doctor accused of sexually assaulting four patients over a period of several months has been arrested in Madadeni, near Newcastle, and will appear...
Purdue whacked with $5.5bn sentence, clears path for settlement
A New Jersey court sentenced OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma to $5.5bn in fines and penalties stemming from its 2020 guilty plea to charges of deceiving government regulators and paying kickbacks...
Crunch-time for cancer Roundup weed killer cases
Judges in a US Supreme Court are wrestling this week with whether federal law pre-empts them – and juries – from weighing claims from...
Surgeon on manslaughter charge for removing wrong organ
A US grand jury had indicted Florida surgeon Thomas Shaknovsky (44) on a second-degree manslaughter charge for allegedly removing a patient’s liver instead of...
Ballooning malpractice claims needs alternative approach
Escalating medical malpractice claims against the state – nearly R2bn in 2020/21 – risk collapsing the struggling public healthcare system, and alternatives to traditional...
Disgraced former UCLA OB-GYN resentenced to 11 years
A Los Angeles doctor, James Heaps, has been sentenced again to 11 years in prison for sexual and other offences after a retrial, reports...