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Medico-Legal
Formal inquiry after children’s dental visit deaths
The HPCSA has subpoenaed a dental practitioner to attend a formal inquiry in September, where her “professional conduct” will be questioned relating to two...
Pretoria midwife faces multiple assault charges
A former Pretoria midwife appeared briefly in court last week facing a barrage of assault charges after years of malpractice allegations related to her...
Euthanasia activist Davidson arrested again
SA euthanasia activist Sean Davison has been arrested in London for assisting a terminally-ill patient to die.
According to Netwerk24, Davison had accompanied a 79-year-old English...
Puberty blockers ban lawful, rules UK High Court
A British judge has rejected challenges to emergency legislation introduced under the previous Health Secretary, ruling that the ban on prescribing puberty blockers to...
Australian judge dismisses Roundup class action cancer suit
A class action lawsuit claiming Bayer’s Roundup weedkiller can cause lymphoma has been dismissed by an Australian judge, a ruling the company said it...
Gauteng Health to fork out R1m for botched knee surgery
Gauteng’s Department of Health is mired in a sea of negligence claims, having paid out R623m for the first nine months of the 2023/24...
Gauteng Health accuses Cancer Alliance of interference as case postponed
The Gauteng Health Department has hit back, in court papers, against claims that it has failed to spend millions of rands of cancer funding,...
Wrong heart monitor data leads to unnecessary surgery for woman
A US woman is suing a medical device manufacturer, alleging her heart monitor provided her doctors with data from a different patient, leading to...
Netcare failed to protect employee against abusive surgeon, court finds
The former manager of an operating theatre at the Free State Universitas Hospital has successfully sued Netcare for failing to protect her and take...
Probe into child’s death after tooth extraction
The Free State Department of Health has launched an investigation into the death of a four-year-old girl, who died after having a tooth pulled...
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...