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Medico-Legal
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...
Texas AG sues Pfizer over Covid-19 jab claims
Pfizer has been sued by Texas Attorney-General Ken Paxton, who has accused the drugmaker of misrepresenting the efficacy of its widely-used Covid-19 vaccine, and...
Money vs principles in OxyContin case
America’s massive opioid crisis was highlighted this week in the US Supreme Court when arguments were heard in a challenge to the multi-billion-dollar bankruptcy...
Ex-US nurse convicted of negligent homicide fails to get licence back
A Tennessee court has rejected former nurse RaDonda Vaught’s appeal to overturn a nursing board’s 2021 decision and get her licence back.
Vaught made headlines...
Justice committee slaps down medico-legal claims Bill
A Bill aimed at structuring the payment of medico-legal claims against the state has been rejected by Parliament’s Justice & Correctional Services Committee.
The State...
SA health NGOs join in cystic fibrosis drugs battle
The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) and Doctors without Borders (MSF) are being admitted as amicus curiae (friends of the court) in a case against...
Doctor charged with PPE fraud and theft
Gauteng Department of Health employee Dr Obakeng Stephen Mookeletsi – from Leratong Hospital – has appeared in court on charges of fraud, theft and...
Gauteng Health in court over medical waste tender deal
The Gauteng Health Department is being sued in the Gauteng High Court (Johannesburg) after being accused of awarding a multimillion-rand medical waste tender –...
Judge rebukes RAF for disobeying court orders in hospital claims
A High Court judgment has slammed the conduct of the Road Accident Fund (RAF) and its CEO, Collins Letsoalo, and the manner in which...
US hospital sued after mislabelled IV bag leads to patient's paralysis
A Pennsylvanian couple has launched a medical malpractice suit after the man, in hospital at the time with Covid, was given a paralysing agent...
Patients sue Spanish government over banned painkiller
A patients group representing several British victims has launched legal action against the Spanish Government over claims it failed to safeguard people against the...
GP fined for spreading false Covid information
A Pretoria GP has been found guilty by the Health Professions Council of SA of unethical conduct by disseminating false information about Covid-19 vaccines...
GP (85) pleads for lenient sentence in fake death certificate case
An 85-year-old doctor accused of issuing a fake death certificate, who previously claimed he was “too old for a trial”, is now negotiating a...
Full salary for North West health official despite 11-month absence
Despite not reporting for duty since January, a senior North West Health Department official facing misconduct and criminal charges related to alleged tender fraud has...
Cancer patients granted interdict to keep dismissed oncologist at Cape hospital
The Western Cape High Court issued a provisional interdict this week to keep in place the medical privileges of Dr Louis Kathan, described by...
Fake radiographer gets unusual sentence
A woman in the Eastern Cape who falsified her radiography qualifications was handed a sentence of 2 000 hours’ periodical imprisonment for “myriad lies...
Looming legal challenges against AstraZeneca over Covid jab
AstraZeneca is facing legal action by a British man, Jamie Scott, who suffered a blood clot that left him with brain damage and unable...
Critically-ill UK baby loses fight for life
Terminally-ill eight-month-old British baby Indi Gregory died in her mother’s arms on Monday morning after an epic battle by her parents to keep her...
Vaginal mesh implant victim awarded £1m
An NHS hospital trust in Britain has to cough up at least £1m in damages to a woman who suffered traumatic complications from a vaginal...
Listeriosis victims still awaiting justice
Five years since a listeriosis outbreak in SA killed more than 200 people and caused severe illness in many others, human rights lawyers are...
RAF and its CEO face contempt of court suit
Discovery Health plans to launch contempt of court proceedings against both the Road Accident Fund and CEO Collins Letsoalo “within the next few days”...
Prison for Indonesia cough syrup boss and staff after child deaths
The boss and three other officials of an Indonesian firm in East Java, whose cough syrup was linked to the deaths of more than...
Thousands of black women sue over cancer from hair products claims
Leading hair straightening products are being blamed for causing cancer in thousands of women of colour across America, who with their lawyers, are planning...
Life Esidimeni inquest concludes
Proceedings in the Life Esidimeni inquest have concluded, with the Pretoria High Court now tasked with making its findings and recommendations on who was...
US doctor (84) challenges age-based cognition screening
An ophthalmologist in America is suing a medical group for age discrimination because it requires a cognition assessment for those aged 70 and older.
Dr...
Parents sue company for daughter’s death after highly caffeinated beverage
The parents of 21-year-old college student Sarah Katz, who had severe arrhythmia, are suing a US company after alleging its lemonade played a role...
US flight attendants win chemicals-in-uniforms case
A Californian jury has ruled that a clothing company should pay more than $1m to four American Airlines flight attendants who blamed chemicals –...
Regulator loses bid to stop healthcare vouchers sale
SA's medical schemes regulator has lost its High Court bid to stop Discovery Health and a division of Netcare from selling prepaid private healthcare...
TikTok ‘doctor’ a free man after charges dropped
Charges were withdrawn this week against the man known on Tiktok as “Dr Matthew Lani”, who was arrested on Sunday night at Helen Joseph...
DA councillor in ‘bogus’ medical CV scandal
A DA councillor in Cape Town is being probed by the party over allegedly bogus medical qualifications . Abdulkader Elyas apparently claimed on his...
Ex-Mayo Clinic doctor charged with fatally poisoning pharmacist wife
A former US Mayo Clinic doctor faces 40 years behind bars if found guilty of fatally poisoning his pharmacist wife, whose death had initially...
HPCSA fines doctors for illegal body part harvesting, incorrect procedures, fraud …
MedicalBrief lists the medley of guilty judgments handed down by the Health Professions Council of SA between mid-July and September, from unauthorised removal of...
SECTION27 seeks culpable homicide charges against Life Esidimeni trio
Public interest law centre SECTION27 will argue for culpable homicide charges to be brought against three witnesses for their roles in the deaths of...