Articles Posted in In The News

An Olympic medalist and another former gymnast have accused a longtime team physician of sexual abuse. One of the women filed a complaint in Michigan, the other filed in California. Both women allege that Dr. Larry G. Nassar, a former USA Gymnastics physician, of molesting them.

The women who filed the complaints say that Nassar abused them in the 1990s and early 2000s. They claim that the doctor fondled their genitalia and breasts. One of the women also claims that Nassar spoke inappropriately when the two were alone together.The second woman claims that Nassar was obviously physically aroused during one of her visits.

Nassar is no longer affiliated with team USA. The organization notified law enforcement immediately after the allegations became known. USA Gymnastics said that they learned of the allegations in 2015 and dismissed Nassar shortly after.

A family from Gwynn Oak was awarded $10 million by a Baltimore jury. The jury found that the University of Maryland Medical System gave a family member a drug that ruined his colon and ultimately caused the man’s death.

According to reports, Dennis Allen was admitted to the University of Maryland Medical Center in the spring of 2013. He entered the hospital for kidney problems and, during treatment, developed potassium levels that doctors deemed were too high. To counteract his high potassium levels, doctors administered Kayexalate.

After being given the drug, Allen began to have blood in his stool. Medical staff was slow to respond to the issue, waiting several hours before testing Allen and determining that there was an issue with his colon.  Allen underwent surgery and had his colon removed. He died the next day.

A 17-year-old girl in the United Kingdom succumbed to Type 1 diabetes after multiple doctors failed to diagnose her condition. Despite several indicators that the teen was suffering from the disease, medical professionals failed to notice the symptoms. As a result, the girl lost her life.

A probe into the case has highlighted multiple failings on the part of medical professionals. These failings included a proper diagnosis and treatments that could have saved Claire Taylor’s life.

According to reports, Claire had been ill for approximately two weeks leading up to her death.

According to a judge in Scotland, Dr. Olubumni Oniya did not follow proper guidelines as she monitored one of her patients almost a decade ago. As a result of her failure to monitor that patient correctly, the woman gave birth to a little girl who was ultimately diagnosed with cerebral palsy.

Reports say that the unnamed woman developed health issues at 6:18 p.m., shortly before she gave birth to her daughter. Dr. Oniya has been found negligent in acting upon those health issues. The child, according to the ruling should have been delivered via emergency assisted delivery.

Lord Brailsford issued a written judgment that said Dr. Oniya did not follow “best practice guidelines” during the labor and delivery. Had the doctor have followed guidelines, the child likely would not have been born with injuries. In his written statement, Lord Brailsford said, “Having regard to all the foregoing features, I am satisfied that Dr. Oniya’s management in the period following 18:18 was negligent.”

Donald Trump is in the news frequently these days. From the things he says to the things he does, he is fodder for the evening reports. Recently, he sat down with Dr. Mehmet Oz and discussed his medical reports. Trump seems to trust the celebrity doctor, but should you?

Currently, Oz serves as the big boss of Columbia University’s integrative medical center. In 2015, a group of doctors that included professionals from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Stanford University said that he should be let go. They pointed out that “members of the public are being misled and endangered.” This statement was in response to Oz’s reported disdain for evidence-based medicine.

Long before the presidential candidate, Oz has been scrutinized. In 2014, BMJ published an analysis of things that had been suggested on Oz’s popular medical advice show. They found that less than half of his advice was supported by any type of scientific or medical evidence.

A man went to an emergency room in Hawaii and never walked out. His widow has just reached a $4.2 million settlement with the hospital that had been responsible for his care.

According to court reports, Antonio Marrero went to Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health Center’s emergency room complaining of a sore throat. Doctors determined that Marrero was suffering with an abscess on his tonsils and sedated him to evaluate his condition further. The sedation was not performed by an anesthesiologist and Marrero was given too much sedative.

As a result of the over-dosing, Marrero’s airway narrowed and he was unable to breathe. The lack of oxygen caused the man to pass out and eventually die. After the settlement, the hospital made a statement that said, in part, “Any adverse medical event is taken very seriously and we use that to analyze our system in a way of doing things and to therefore afterwards educate both providers and staff as to what happened and what should not happen to prevent any recurrence.”

Imagine being told that your baby was going to be born dead. Many women have gone through this heartbreak and understand just how devastating it is. To be told your baby will be born dead and then to hear a tiny breath after it is delivered is a roller coaster ride that no mom should have to go through, but it is exactly what happened in the UK.

Sam Pothecary was lying on an operating table in 2012 when doctors told her they could no longer hear her baby’s heartbeat. The would not continue with her c-section, and she should prepare to deliver her stillborn child naturally. A day later, Pothecary delivered her child. His lifeless body was given to her and Pothecary heard a tiny gasp.

As soon as medical professionals realized Archie was alive, they rushed him to intensive care. Pothecary had been given high doses of pain control and other medications, any of which could have caused serious side effects in the child. There was another risk: Archie may have been starved for oxygen, and he may have been born with brain damage.

Fiona Stanly Hospital in Perth was the scene of a terrible mix-up involving a five-year-old girl. The mistake occurred in February, but the girl’s foster mother is just now speaking up because a second patient was given an incorrect dose of medication in August at the same hospital and died.

The girl and her family entered the hospital after the child suffered a gash to her leg. When the doctors attempted to stitch the wound, the child would not stop screaming. It was only when the girl was clearly in pain that she should not have felt did the doctors discover why: They had injected her with magnesium sulphate instead of a numbing anesthetic.

The foster mother says that every time the girl screamed, the doctors would give her another injection. Magnesium sulphate in high doses can cause the blood pressure to drop or spawn an asthma attack. The doctors kept insisting that there was no way she could feel her leg being stitched, assuming all the while that they had given her the correct medication.

Reporters from The Detroit News, Joel Kurth and Karen Bouffard, recently conducted an investigation for a series of reports and found that there is a dirty secret alive within the walls of some city hospitals. There seems to be a systematic problem with surgeons using dirty instruments during procedures, putting patients in danger. Thanks to the reporters, a state-federal investigation has begun.

According to evidence gathered by the duo, there have been years of complaints from staff and surgeons at Detroit Medical Center’s Midtown campus regarding the use of dirty instruments. No matter how concerning the use of dirty instruments is, what is even more startling is that complaints have been sounded for years.

Despite this information being released, the center has refused to release data regarding how many patients have contracted infections. Unfortunately, they aren’t required to, leaving the public in the dark. There is also no legal requirements that make surgeons inform patients of any complications during surgery. There are guidelines, but the are subjective. It then becomes a vicious cycle: Doctors don’t tell patients, patients have no idea, there is no one to inform regulators.

A man died in 2011 after he underwent heart surgery. The doctor who performed that surgery was subsequently fired and forced to surrender his license. Today, the family of the deceased man is suing UnityPoint Health-Meriter in Wisconsin.

According to the widow and estate of the man, his death was due to negligence. The lawsuit, filed on behalf of the family was filed in Dane County Circuit Court. Dr. Sean Yetman was placed under investigation after the death of Thomas Pliner, 77, and was terminated. The family is suing the hospital.

Pliner underwent a bypass and valve repair surgery and bled excessively during the procedure. The man passed away the day following his surgery. According to an internal investigation, Yetman allowed Pliner to remain on a heart-lung bypass machine too long. Additionally, he harvested a vein for the bypass when he should have harvested an artery.