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Medico-Legal
KZN mother sues over baby's arm amputation
The mother of a baby who lost his arm due to alleged medical negligence at the Stanger Hospital is suing the KZN MEC of...
MS sufferer looks to CCMA to reverse Woolies suspension over 'incapacity'
Sandra Teodosio of Durban was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2013 and in 2017 suspended from her job at Woolworths and charged with incapacity,...
HPCSA 'must investigate' doctors who backed Schabir Shaik's medical parole
Fresh calls have been made to review Schabir Shaik’s health and medical parole conditions as it enters its ninth year, says a Sunday Tribune...
UK medical negligence pay-outs reach 'unsustainable' levels
Pay-outs given to the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) patients who have been victims of negligence should be reduced because they are “unsustainable”, The...
Japanese government sued for forcible sterilisation in 1970s
A Japanese woman who was forcibly sterilised in the 1970s at the age of 15 is suing the government in the first case of...
Judgment legalising dagga creates a minefield in the workplace
South Africa seems to be following the trend in the US to legalise cannabis. Last year, Judge Dennis Davis ruled in a full bench...
SA court rules in favour of 'posthumous conception'
Judge Judith Cloete ruled in the High Court in Cape Town that a 36-year-old woman could use her late husband’s frozen sperm for a...
UK striking from medical register 'threatens learning from medical error'
More than 1,500 UK doctors have signed a letter expressing 'deep-seated concerns' at junior doctor Hadiza Bawa-Garba being struck off the medical register following...
Australian former chiropractor fined for 'quackery'
A part-time cabbie has been handed a A$12,000 fine after pleading guilty to six charges of claiming to be a health practitioner in Australia....
Enforced psychiatric treatment for vulnerable people is wrong – UK Law Society
Vulnerable people sectioned under the UK’s Mental Health Act are being subjected to medical treatment without consent and are not protected by effective legal...
Is a 'union style' medical indemnity cover the answer?
A number of SA medical professionals do not have medical indemnity cover due to the rising costs of insurance premiums. Norton Rose Fulbright's Natasha...
KZN Health lambasted for lack of care and 'reckless' litigation
KwaZulu-Natal's Health Department has received a judicial tongue-lashing, first for an 'astounding' lack of care given to a mom who gave birth to a brain-damaged...
Compensation Fund accused of thwarting doctor fraud case
The Labour Department’s Compensation Fund is being accused of allegedly frustrating a R12.1m fraud case against a doctor in North West by failing to...
Limpopo Health's defence of 'financial constraints' rejected
A Limpopo man who was left with a "second-hand ankle" after first being assaulted by police and then neglected at various provincial hospitals must...
Durban dentist charged with culpable homicide
A Durban dentist has been arrested following the death of a Canadian man at an unlicensed facility for treating drug addiction.
In early November, a...
UK doctor jailed for false medical claims must pay back or face extra prison
A UK doctor jailed for invoicing false personal injury medical costs has now been told he must pay back the money he made. According...
Bogus doctors promising 'voluptuous hips' arrested in Limpopo
Two alleged illegal immigrants have been arrested in Limpopo as bogus healers, having promised patients everything from bigger penises to more voluptuous hips. The...
Judge rules for mediation in brain damaged toddler's life support treatment
A hospital in the UK has prevented parents from sending their brain damaged toddler to the same Vatican doctors who offered to help in...
Unique prosecution of UK transplant surgeon for signing the livers of patients
Simon Bramhall, a consultant surgeon specialising in liver transplantation, pleaded guilty in Birmingham Crown Court to “assault by beating”. He awaits sentencing. On two...
HIV-positive Gauteng academic successfully challenges dismissal
After accidentally being exposed to HIV‚ an academic chose to return to his family home to deal with the trauma. But before he could...
Pay-out after woman is kept alive for two years despite 'living will'
The grieving family of a stroke victim in the UK have received a £45,000 National Health Service (NHS) pay-out after doctors kept her alive...
'Clear failings of care' resulted in UK anorexia death
A talented young student died of anorexia because of numerous 'clear failures of care' by GPs, hospitals and specialists in eating disorders, a scathing...
Mandatory clinical trials needed for implanted medical devices — Oxford study
Women have been exposed to unnecessary harm due to poor regulation, most recently for vaginal mesh products for prolapse, and a University of Oxford,...
Legally, surgeons should not consider durotomy 'an entirely benign event'
In the US, most malpractice cases associated with dural tear end in a ruling favourable to the surgeon. But, reports a Brown University study,...
Gauteng Health must pay damages for 'botched' hysterectomy
Gauteng Health has been ordered to pay 100% of the damages suffered by a 48-year-old Heidelberg woman, who was left with chronic pain after...
Hawks swoop over dubious medical negligence claims
The Hawks are investigating an Eastern Cape lawyer for three dubious medical negligence claims totalling R45m. The Eastern Cape government facesR17bn in claims and...
Women considering suing influential UK pelvic surgeon
A group of 100 women are considering legal action against Britain’s most influential pelvic surgeon, claiming that operations he conducted left them with traumatic,...
Eastern Cape Health outsources medico-legal claim work
The Eastern Cape Department of Health has appointed a leading international law firm to manage and investigate R17bn in medico-legal claims against it over...
New law helps to control dangerous initiation rituals
The new Eastern Cape law bringing safety to the traditional male initiation ritual has already resulted in nine traditional surgeons being convicted, with one...
Family wants answers after the death of mother and unborn baby
The family of a woman who died with her unborn baby at the Walvis Bay State Hospital in September is demanding answers from the...
Extortion charge against Discovery following fraudulent claims dispute
A Durban pharmacist has laid charges of intimidation and extortion against Discovery Health, says a Sunday Independent report. In turn, Discovery has lodged a formal...
US nurse compensated after stopping police from taking blood
A US nurse who was held for refusing to allow police take a blood sample from an unconscious patient has accepted $500,000 in compensation,...
Life Esidimeni tangle has Gauteng departments in hot water
A Johannesburg High Court judge has expressed concern over Social Development Department officials using conduit payments to' exercise'authoritarian control' of an NGO, and that...
First US pharma tycoon arrest for allegedly bribing doctors to fuel opioid usage
A 74-year-old US pharmaceutical tycoon who found an aggressive way to sell vast numbers of opioid painkiller by allegedly bribing doctors with speakers’ fees,...
Rare medical incident gives rise to legal tussle over surrogacy
A US woman who gave birth to her own child at the same time as she delivered a surrogate baby has been reunited with...
Gauteng Health loses landmark case to pay awards in portions
In a case which highlighted the growing burden of medical negligence payouts on state entities, Gauteng Health didn’t help its cause when it failed...
Judge Moseneke: Gauteng Health triumvirate 'must testify'
Judge Dikgang Moseneke said the Life Esidimeni hearings into the deaths of more than 140 state psychiatric patients would not be completed until the three senior...
UK court rejects bid for assisted death
A terminally ill man in the UK has lost his High Court challenge against the law on assisted dying. BBC News reports that Noel...
ASA rules on 'uncomfortable' medical advertising
Messages that promote sexual health should not be withdrawn simply because they do not sit well with parents. The Times reports that this is...
J&J's damning internal company mails exposed in trial
A vaginal mesh implant made by Johnson & Johnson (J&J) was launched without a clinical trial, and then marketed for five years after the...