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Medico-Legal
Patient charges Netcare staffer with sexual harassment
A female patient has filed charges with local police alleging sexual harassment by a male nurse at a Pietermaritzburg hospital, and accusing Netcare St...
Sackler family faces rash of lawsuits for OxyContin crisis
Purdue Pharma, the manufacturer of highly addictive opioid OxyContin, is being pursued by a mass of creditors as well as more than 40 states...
US cosmetic surgeon to fork out $5m after fake reviews
A Seattle cosmetic surgery provider has been ordered to pay $5m to the state Attorney-General’s office and thousands of Washingtonians after being accused of...
Leading drug scientist’s fraud charges shakes confidence in science
The fraud charges against City University of New York (CUNY) Professor Hoau-Yan Wang relating to Cassava Sciences’ proposed Alzheimer’s drug Simufilam, have rocked confidence...
Mzansi LifeCare boss nabbed for alleged R32m mobile clinic fraud
A third person has been arrested in connection with a R32m fraud case linked to the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Health, with Nandi Nandi Msimang...
J&J price probe dropped after TB drug costs slashed
Health NGOs have hailed the agreement reached between the Competition Commission and Johnson and Johnson (J&J) and its subsidiary Janssen Pharmaceuticals over the termination...
Laser hair removal, plastic surgeons, top litigation list
In a cross-sectional study of malpractice and medical liability claims for cutaneous energy-based device procedures, researchers found that the most litigated health professionals were...
Fake therapist fooled hundreds online until she died
Hundreds of Americans may have unknowingly received therapy from an untrained impostor who masqueraded as an online therapist, possibly for as long as two...
Health bosses guilty of Life Esidimeni deaths
The blame for some of the deaths in the Life Esidimeni tragedy – one of the worst human rights infringements in democratic South Africa...
Suspended sentences for Cape doctor who sold R5m medicines
Cape Town doctor Bert Wolfgang Kirsten has been sentenced after entering into a plea agreement with the state for the selling and distribution of...
Life Esidimeni judgment next week
The long-awaited judgment in the Life Esidimeni inquest will be delivered on 10 July, when the Gauteng High Court will rule who should be...
Judge foils bid to block J&J bankruptcy plan
A US judge has rejected a bid by a group of cancer victims to block Johnson & Johnson from pursuing a proposed bankruptcy settlement of...
Alzheimer’s researcher in court for fraud
A scientist whose research has been at the centre of controversy over an Alzheimer’s drug candidate has been charged with fraud.
A grand jury has...
Woman wins damages after uterus removed in C-section
Gauteng’s Health MEC is being sued by a woman who emerged from a Caesarean birth at a state hospital minus her uterus, despite medical...
Kimberley doctor guilty of SARS tax dodge
A Northern Cape medical doctor has been found guilty of failing to declare his personal income tax to the South African Revenue Services (SARS)...
US court to decide on transgender challenge
The US Supreme Court has agreed to consider a Tennessee law banning certain medical treatments for transgender minors, the first time judges will decide...
Staffer sues Neuralink over herpes exposure from infected lab monkeys
A California woman who worked for Elon Musk’s brainchip company Neuralink has opened a lawsuit claiming she was scratched by a lab monkey infected...
E Cape Health guilty of medical negligence in R28m action
The Eastern Cape High Court (Bhisho) has ruled that the provincial health department must pay damages for a child who was born with cerebral...
Pfizer sued by Kansas over Covid vaccine 'misrepresentation'
The US state of Kansas has filed a lawsuit against Pfizer, accusing it of misrepresenting the safety of its Covid-19 vaccine and violating the state’s...
Millions for NPO rehab centre diverted to Life Healthcare account
A forensic investigation by Gauteng’s Department of Social Development (DSD) department has found that R112m of taxpayers’s money meant for drug recovery patients was...
ANC official in court over alleged assault on female paramedic
Justice Ngalonkulu, the ANC's head of elections in Johannesburg and also an employee of the City of Johannesburg, appeared in court after being arrested...
Krejcir’s lawyers blame prison doctors for OxyContin habit
Lawyers representing Czech Republic-born mobster Radovan Krejcir last week accused Gauteng prison doctors of prescribing a highly addictive drug to treat the underworld boss...
Cancer victims want J&J talc bankruptcy blocked by courts
A group of cancer victims has asked a federal judge to block Johnson & Johnson’s proposed bankruptcy settlement of tens of thousands of lawsuits...
Gilead to pay $40m in HIV drug case settlement
Gilead Sciences has agreed to pay $40m to more than 2 600 patients who developed kidney and bone diseases while taking its anti-HIV drug...
Solidarity says NHI legal battle lines drawn
Solidarity’s court application against NHI was opposed last week by President Cyril Ramaphosa, who had officially given notice that he would oppose it –...
Criminalising medical errors and what’s at stake
The South African Medical Association has for years raised concerns about the criminalisation of medical errors, stressing that current legal practices may undermine patient...
Durban dentist admits addict got morphine without supervision
An unsupervised general worker had administered morphine to a French-Canadian drug addict who came to South Africa for treatment at the Minds Alive Wellness...
Attorney must personally pay for hospital staff's hostage trauma
The Durban High Court has awarded damages to two Life Westville Hospital staff who were held hostage – one was shot twice – by...
Wrong to label woman ‘anti-vaxxer’ for refusing Covid jab, rules UK court
A Scottish judge has ruled that the NHS must compensate an ultrasound technician after she was called an “anti-vaxxer” for refusing the Covid-19 shot...
Theranos founder Holmes wants fraud conviction overturned
Lawyers for the disgraced Elizabeth Holmes, founder of failed blood-testing company Theranos, asked a US federal appeals court this week to overturn the fraud...
Juul e-cig ban rescinded by FDA following court rulings
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had done an about-turn and reversed a ban on e-cigarette products made by Juul Labs, the company...
HPCSA rules against radiographer, biokineticist, podiatrist, psychologist …
Unauthorised procedures, disclosing confidential information and refusing emergency treatment ... these were among the charges against healthcare professionals which the Health Professions Council of...
Judge green-lights 700 000 Zantac lawsuits
In a blow to British pharmaceutical company GSK, a Delaware judge has given the go-ahead for more than 70 000 lawsuits alleging that its...
J&J ordered to pay $260m in latest talc trial
An Oregon jury has said Johnson & Johnson must fork out $260m to a woman who said she got mesothelioma from inhaling the company’s talc...
Texas Supreme Court rejects abortion ban challenge
The Supreme Court in Texas has unanimously rejected a challenge from 20 women who said they were denied medically necessary abortions under the state’s...
Clicks sued for R6m in ‘wrong’ medication row
A Western Cape woman, who is suing Clicks for R5.9m after she was dispensed the wrong medication and “nearly bled to death”, has been...
Surrogacy group fails in bid to declare regulations unconstitutional
A bid to declare regulations under the National Health Act relating to the control over artificial fertilisation, embryo transfer, storage and destroying of zygotes...
Project manager guilty of Digital Vibes bribe
A former Municipal Infrastructure Support Agent (MISA) employee has been found guilty of accepting a R160 000 bribe while she was a project manager...
Zantac did not cause cancer, jury says in first trial over drug
An elderly American woman’s claim that the new discontinued heartburn drug Zantac was the cause of her colon cancer has been rejected by a...
Cancer victims sue J&J over alleged ‘fraudulent’ bankruptcies
Johnson & Johnson has been sued by a group of cancer victims accusing it of committing fraud through repeated efforts to use a shell...