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Medico-Legal
Juul e-cig ban rescinded by FDA following court rulings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...
Judge slams ‘vexatious’ psychologist for stalling tactics
A psychologist in George has failed in yet another attempt to stop the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) from instituting disciplinary action...
Mother sues Western Cape Health for R38m damages
Cerebral palsy-type claims continue to drain the national Department of Health coffers, comprising nearly half of all medico-legal claims, and with the department having...
Philips forks out $1bn in device lawsuit settlements
Dutch medical device-maker Philips will pay $1.1bn to settle hundreds of personal injury lawsuits in the US over its defective sleep apnoea machines, which have...
Nurses were negligent in care of elderly patient, appeal council finds
The South African Nursing Council Appeal Authority (SANCAA) has ruled that an inquiry failed to conduct a thorough investigation into ill-treatment of an elderly...
Paraplegic SANDF paramedic fights 15 years for payout
A former SA National Defence Force employee – who lost her unborn child and was paralysed after an accident in a military vehicle crash...
KZN Health probes man’s death outside clinic
An investigation has been launched by the KwaZulu-Natal Health Department after a man was found dead in a clinic parking lot on Monday. He...
US anaesthesiologist faces 190 years after IV bag-tampering deaths
A Dallas anaesthesiologist could be looking at 190 years behind bars after being convicted last week of injecting a nerve-blocking agent and other drugs...
Pfizer and Moderna go head-to-head over Covid jab patents
The latest leg of a global legal battle began in Britain on Tuesday when Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech asked the court to...
Doctor’s HPCSA hearing over Covid vaccine comments begins
A disciplinary hearing against doctor Shankara Chetty began in Durban last week after Wits University Professor Francois Venter lodged a complaint against him with...
Corruption accused in Digital Vibes case to hear fate in May
The magistrate presiding over the corruption trial of former Municipal Infrastructure Support Agent (Misa) employee Lizeka Tonjeni, accused of accepting a R160 000 bribe...
British celebrity doctor in Botox for sex hearing
A well-known TV cosmetic doctor gave free Botox to a patient in return for sex, a UK medical tribunal found, after Dr Tijion Esho,...
Dentist pleads not guilty to patient’s murder in ‘detox’ clinic
The trial of a Durban dentist, charged with murder after a patient died in his detox centre seven years ago, started in the High...
Health Ombud hamstrung by lack of funds
The Office of the Health Ombudsman is battling to resolve serious complaints against public and private health facilities because it has no money to hire investigators.
Health-e...
Discovery judgments mount amid RAF dispute
Discovery Health says it has obtained judgments totalling more than R170m since the RAF’s controversial directive not to reimburse past medical expenses where a...
New sentencing date for Dickason
Former doctor Lauren Dickason, convicted of the murder of her three daughters – and currently in custody at the psychiatric Hillmorton Hospital – will...
Court rules police raid on Gauteng pharmacy unlawful
The SA police has been ordered to return confiscated items, including cannabis products and edibles, after it unlawfully raided a pharmacy without first obtaining...
Short-lived ALS drug faces class action suit after withdrawal
The manufacturer of the world’s newest treatment approved for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), often called Lou Gehrig’s disease, has withdrawn the drug from the...
HPCSA acts against unauthorised procedures, serial fraudsters …
Guilty verdicts for unauthorised procedures under anaesthetic and broken instruments during root canal, among others, were handed down by the Health Professions Council of...
US lawmaker probes FDA inspection of Musk’s Neuralink
The US Food & Drug Administration has been questioned on why it did not inspect Elon Musk’s Neuralink before allowing the brain implant company...
FDA settles Ivermectin lawsuit brought by doctors
The US Food and Drug Administration has settled a lawsuit over some of its posts about Ivermectin, including what may have been one of...
Miami surgeon faces Brazilian butt lift complaints
A US surgeon has racked up three public complaints related to his reported mishandling of aesthetic procedures, including gluteal fat grafting – also known...