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Medico-Legal
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...
Calls for Big Pharma to ‘help pay’ UK tainted blood compensation
Global pharmaceutical firms that supplied products involved in Britain’s contaminated blood scandal are being urged by MPs and campaigners to cough up and contribute...
‘Midwife’ and MEC sued after death of twins
An unregistered midwife – Caitlyn Collins – and the Western Cape Health MEC Nomafrench Mbombo are being sued for nearly R5m by a couple...
MEC forks out R17m for care of brain-damaged child
A Zimbabwean mother, whose daughter was born with cerebral palsy 10 years ago, will receive nearly R17.3m for future medical expenses in a negligence...
Justice yet to be served in US osteoporosis drug case
A US court case by 1 000 plaintiffs against pharmaceutical company Merck has been dragging on since 2011, writes Gregory Curfman in JAMA Network,...
Two UK pharmacists illegally sold 55m doses of controlled drugs
A pair of British pharmacists who sold “industrial quantities” of Class C controlled drugs were sentenced to two years’ imprisonment, suspended for 24 months,...
Theranos founder Holmes has more jail time cut
Imprisoned Silicon Valley CEO Elizabeth Holmes has shaved more months from her initial 11-year-plus sentence for wire fraud and conspiracy, and is due to be released two years...
Dentist fails to have charges over patient’s death dismissed
Durban dentist Anwar Mohamed Jeewa, charged with the death of a Canadian man at his illegal drug and detoxification centre in Westville in November...
Legal tussle over R15m payout after Covid death
A Durban woman has accused a Momentum claims investigator of colluding with a prosecutor to deprive her of her share of a R30m life...
J&J offers new deal in baby powder cancer litigation
The ongoing litigation revolving around J&J’s baby powder’s alleged link to ovarian cancer has taken a new turn, with the company planning to ask thousands...