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Medico-Legal
Couple accuses Ramaphosa of links to medical aid fraud
A couple with a history of litigation now claims that President Cyril Ramaphosa benefitted from fraud and corruption, linked to various medical schemes, while...
US company hit by lawsuits over destroyed IVF embryos
A surge of lawsuits has been launched against a major American medical supply company – CooperSurgical – with patients claiming that one of its products...
Leading SA medical experts back euthanasia court challenge
Respected South African medical experts, including professors, oncologists, ethicists and anaesthesiologists, have thrown their weight behind a pending court challenge to legalise assisted suicide,...
Defence in Peter Beale trial questions mother's memory
The credibility of evidence from the mother of a boy who died after a procedure by Peter Beale was questioned in the Gauteng High...
Gauteng doctor fined after botching hysterectomy
A Johannesburg doctor was found guilty last week by the Health Professions Council of South Africa of unprofessional conduct and incompetence, after botching the...
Dickason likely to be sentenced in March for children's murders
Lauren Dickason, the South African woman found guilty of killing her three young daughters weeks after emigrating to New Zealand, may be sentenced in...
Baby’s decapitation during labour ruled homicide
A US medical examiner has ruled that the decapitation of an infant during delivery was a homicide, resulting directly from a fracture of cervical...
Commissioner recommends damages for UK pelvic mesh victims
Families of children left disabled by an epilepsy drug and women injured by pelvic mesh implants should be given urgent financial help, England’s patient...
State witness 'biased' and 'reckless', Beale's lawyer claims
Murder-accused paediatric surgeon Peter Beale’s decision to go home after operating on a 10-year-old boy, who suffered complications during the procedure, fell under the...
SA woman has assisted suicide after winning medical negligence claim
A 63-year-old South African woman ended her life last week in an assisted suicide at a clinic in Switzerland, after an eight-year battle to...
Gauteng Health 100% liable in R30m negligence claim, judge rules
A Gauteng High Court judge has concluded that the provincial Health Department was 100% liable for the damages a mother and her now cerebral...
Digital Vibes accused dismissed after disciplinary hearing
A Municipal Infrastructure Support Agent (MISA) employee has been dismissed after being found guilty – in an internal disciplinary hearing – of taking kickbacks...
GSK coughs up again in another Zantac settlement
British pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has agreed to settle another lawsuit in California that alleged its discontinued heartburn drug Zantac caused cancer, the latest in...
Mega malpractice verdicts against US doctors on the rise
Staggeringly large malpractice awards against hospitals and doctors are rising worldwide, but especially in the United States, according to data from TransRe, an international...
HPCSA issues fines for expired medicines and false representation
Fines and suspensions – for cases including expired medicine, partnering with unregistered staff, and false representation – are among the penalties recently handed out...
Unlicensed NGO parades disabled patients in subsidy dispute protest
In a case reminiscent of the Life Esidimeni tragedy, another instance of the disdain shown to intellectually and physically disabled people has emerged in...
UK healthcare staff sue NHS over Covid contractions
British frontline workers who contracted Covid while taking care of patients have instituted legal action against NHS trusts, registered practices and any other applicable...
Worker forced to get Covid vaccine wins compensation from employer
A South Australian government employee who fell ill after getting a mandatory Covid vaccine has won compensation against his employer.
Daniel Shepherd worked as a...
Beale ignored advice not to operate on children, state claims
As the murder and fraud trial of Dr Peter Beale got underway this week, with the first state witness taking the stand, the prosecution...
SAMA urges law reform as paediatrician now faces murder charges
The South African Medical Association (SAMA) has again called for law reform after the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) changed the charges against paediatric surgeon...
J&J agrees to pay $700m to resolve talc cases
Johnson & Johnson has reached a tentative settlement to resolve probes by 42 American states into whether it misled consumers about the safety of its...
Court upholds lifetime ban from industry for pharma boss
Two years after a judge banned US pharmaceutical boss Martin Shkreli for life from working in the industry, a federal appeals court this week...
Midwife fined for swapping children's Covid vaccines with oral pellets
A hefty $300 000 fine has been slapped on a New York midwife for giving 1 500 children homeopathic pellets rather than the vaccinations...
CMS loses appeal over low-cost cover challenge
The Council for Medical Schemes (CMS) plans to apply for a reconsideration of the dismissal of its appeal against a High Court directive to...
Psychologist guilty of misconduct over killer Donovan Moodley report
A psychologist who had evaluated murderer Donovan Moodley – who killed Johannesburg student Leigh Matthews in 2004 – and supported his release on parole,...
No ‘duty of care’ owed to patients’ families, UK court rules
In a majority verdict, Britain’s Supreme Court has ruled that doctors “do not owe a duty of care to their patients’ families to protect...
Ugandan nurse arrested after babies suffocate in incubators
A nurse at Tororo Main Hospital in Uganda has been arrested and accused of abuse and negligence after the death of two babies in...
Bail for audiologist accused of R1.2m medical aid swindle
A Limpopo speech therapist and audiologist, Dr Lesiba Morgan Gololo, has been released on R1 500 bail after appearing in the Thabamoopo Magistrate’s Court...
Judge throws out lead poisoning class action suit against Anglo
The Gauteng High Court has found no basis for a “factually hopeless” lead poisoning class action against Anglo American, linked to the Kabwe mine...
Bayer triumph after latest Roundup cancer trial
Bayer has won a trial in a lawsuit brought by a California man who said he developed cancer from exposure to its Roundup weedkiller,...
New lawyers for men accused of assassinating Babita Deokaran
The six men charged with Babita Deokaran’s murder made another appearance in the Gauteng High Court (Johannesburg) last week, when their previous attorney withdrew...
Ombud finds clinic staff negligent after turning away rape victim who died
The Health Ombudsman has slammed the conduct of staff at Motherwall Clinic in Gqeberha, who turned away a 15-year-old rape victim seeking help before...
Hospital distances itself from surgeon after 'botched' op
A mother of two has opened criminal cases against a surgeon and his assistant after claiming her operation at a private Johannesburg facility last...
Durban doctor (85) convicted over fake death certificates
Retired Durban doctor Eric van der Veen (85) has been convicted of two counts of fraud for signing death certificates – used in multimillion-rand...
Hip implants ‘just snapped in half’, allege US lawsuits
Patients expected their Profemur artificial hips to last, but when they snapped in half, hundreds of them were left in agony, unable to walk,...
Swifter justice urged in NHS infected blood scandal
British campaigners have warned the country’s government that it will be “on the wrong side of history” if it rejects a new compensation scheme...
Lawyer in medico-legal fees wrangle escapes sequestration bid
Attorney Zuko Nonxuba and his wife Alicia Novelano Nonxuba escaped bankruptcy after the Eastern Cape High Court (East London) dismissed separate applications for their...
Lauren Dickason to be sentenced in 2024
South African doctor and convicted triple murderer Lauren Dickason, found guilty in August of murdering her three children in their New Zealand home, has...
Discovery asks court to declare RAF in contempt
Discovery Health has filed its contempt of court application against the Road Accident Fund (RAF) and CEO Collins Letsoalo for failing to comply with...
Rugby players apply for class action lawsuit over brain injuries
At the High Court in London last week, 295 players applied for a class action lawsuit in their legal battle with rugby union’s governing...