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Medico-Legal
US hospital pays $15.1m after woman blinded during brain surgery
A jury in America found Yale New Haven Hospital negligent after an 85-year-old woman was left blind after a 2019 surgery, awarding her a...
Army veteran sues after surgeons amputate wrong leg
An American woman is suing a hospital after doctors amputated the wrong leg, then four months later taking off the correct limb, leaving her...
New laws proposed for radical overhaul of medico-legal payouts
Exorbitant lump-sum payments to medical negligence victims should be scrapped, and new laws should be introduced for a revised system with structured pay-as-you go...
ConCourt battle looms as Eastern Cape resists negligence payouts
The Eastern Cape Department of Health is taking its fight against lump-sum payments for medico-legal claims to the Constitutional Court, punting alternative measures instead as...
Free State woman sues after cancer surgery
What started as toothache led to a rare cancer diagnosis and years of medical treatment for Lerato Mosai (29), who has been bedridden for...
Cancer patients sue NHS trust after years of 'pointless' chemo treatment
British lawyers will be taking on an NHS trust after more than 40 cancer sufferers endured years of unnecessary chemotherapy at the hands of...
US hospital forks out $18.5m to settle sexual abuse lawsuit
A Californian hospital has reached a settlement of $18.5m with seven women who accused a physical therapist of sexually abusing them for years, reports...
Brazilian mother-of-three dies after six cosmetic procedures in eight hours
A police investigation into involuntary manslaughter is being opened after a Brazilian businesswoman died after undergoing six facial cosmetic procedures during surgery lasting almost...
Leaked report shows hundreds of NHS orthopaedic paediatric patients harmed
Hundreds of orthopaedic patients – mostly children – suffered “harm” at an NHS hospital in England, which is currently reviewing cases dealt with by...
Medico-legal crisis a ‘warning signal’ for patient-safety failures
South Africa cannot sustainably reduce its medico-legal burden without reducing the underlying failures that generate preventable harm. Instead, it should be treating its hefty...
Bayer urges judge to approve Roundup deal
A Missouri judge was urged last week by Bayer’s Monsanto unit to approve its $7.25bn proposed settlement of lawsuits alleging that its weedkiller Roundup...
Judge rejects doctor’s dismissal application in fallopian tube removal case
A woman pursuing a R2m medical negligence claim against two doctors has been given the go-ahead by the North West High Court (Mahikeng) to...
Arizona joins lawsuits against L’Oreal SA over hair relaxer cancer link
The US state of Arizona has taken legal aim at L’Oreal South Africa and its US subsidiary, alleging the cosmetics company hid evidence that...
Patient’s death at psychiatric facility referred to NPA
An investigation into the June 2025 death of a long-term patient at Witrand Psychiatric Hospital in North West has been escalated to the NPA...
Intersex adult in quest for justice over childhood surgery in Gauteng
More than 10 intersex adults have approached a South African support organisation since 2020 saying they underwent surgery or other irreversible medical interventions as...
More SA women join lawsuit after defective pill leads to pregnancies
The number of angry women likely to sue Bayer after a defective batch of contraceptive pills resulted in unintended pregnancies is growing, according to...
US hospital in trouble after drug mix-up seriously harms four patients
A Nashville hospital is in trouble with state regulators after a medication mix-up severely harmed four surgical patients and placed the facility in immediate...
SA women sue after faulty birth control pill recalled
More than 300 women are attempting to sue Bayer after it issued a recall on a batch of faulty contraceptive pills, linked to a...
Maradona trial pauses over alleged medical evidence mix-up
The latest trial over the death of Argentine football legend Diego Maradona was suspended last week after claims that kidney test results presented to...
Harvard to fork out $53m for sales of donated corpses
Harvard University has been ordered to pay $53m to settle a class-action suit brought by families claiming an imprisoned former morgue manager at the...
Mother’s R28.2m claim for son’s brain injury dismissed by SCA
A child’s severe brain injury and subsequent cerebral palsy were unrelated to the birth procedure and resulted from an infection developed before labour, the...
Mpumalanga Health liable for boy’s cerebral palsy
The Mpumalanga Department of Health has been found fully liable for the damages and brain injury of a child born at Piet Retief Hospital...
Biopsy mix-up leads to cancer diagnosis and unnecessary hysterectomy
A US woman has filed a lawsuit against a health group alleging that she was wrongly diagnosed with cancer and underwent an unneeded hysterectomy...
Recognising the limits of your clinical competence
Healthcare practitioners are expected to recognise and work within the limits of their training, experience and competence. This is crucial when confronted with a...
Suspended doctor charged after circumcised boy (8) gets septicaemia
A doctor, suspended by the Health Professionals Council of SA, has appeared in the Senwabarwana Magistrate’s Court on charges of fraud after an inspection...
Killer nurse probed over dozens more deaths in Germany
A palliative care nurse who has already been imprisoned for life after murdering 10 elderly patients “to reduce his workload on night shifts” is...
US fertility doctor sued for using own sperm for treatments
An American fertility doctor – and current chair of the University of North Dakota OB-GYN department – is facing a civil lawsuit alleging he...
Texas doctor charged after client’s fatal IV infusion
A North Texas doctor and a spa owner have been arrested and charged with murder in the 2023 death of a client, reports Dallas...
US officials decertify organ harvesting group
Numerous and ongoing patient safety failures have led to the US Health & Human Services department launching the decertification process for Network for Hope,...
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...