Reuters, 17 November 2017
Author: Nate Raymond
“A California jury on Thursday ruled in favor of Johnson & Johnson in a lawsuit by a woman who said she developed the cancer mesothelioma after being exposed to asbestos in the company’s talc-based products including J&J’s Baby Powder.”
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Category Archives: Safety & quality
Johnson & Johnson hit with $247 million verdict in hip implant trial
Reuters, 17 November 2017
Author: Tina Bellon
“A federal jury in Dallas on Thursday ordered Johnson & Johnson and its DePuy Orthopaedics unit to pay $247 million to six patients who said they were injured by defective Pinnacle hip implants.”
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Anna’s death leaves family asking why she needed surgery so soon after flight home
SMH, 20 November 2017
Author: Aisha Dow
“Anna’s death is set to be probed by a coronial inquest next month, while members of her family are suing two of the Australian doctors involved in her care. They will argue that Anna’s orthopaedic surgeon and anaesthetist should have picked up on the risks and symptoms of deep vein thrombosis before she was operated on. The doctors declined to comment.”
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Oxygen clinic staff to take stand when chiropractor faces court over dead client
SMH, 16 November 2017
Author: Adam Cooper
“Staff at an oxygen therapy clinic that claimed to offer cures for HIV and cancer and was caught up in the Essendon doping saga are to take the stand when their boss faces court over a client’s death.”
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‘I’m Permanently Damaged.’ Woman Sues After She Says Doctors Unnecessarily Removed Her Breasts and Uterus
Time, 25 October 2017
Author: Jamie Ducharme
“After the surgeries, however, she was unhappy with the results of her mastectomy and reached out to a lawyer, who suggested that she see another doctor about breast reconstruction. After examining her case file, the new doctor informed Cooke-Moore that her genetic test results were actually negative, says Christopher Cauble, Cooke-Moore’s lawyer. She called the lab to confirm, and felt her world crash down when she learned that the doctor was right: The operations that had pushed her into early menopause, forced multiple follow-up surgeries, and left her with post-traumatic stress disorder were likely unnecessary.”
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Ads That Can Kill: Lawyers Scare Patients Out Of Taking Medication, Legal Reform Group Says
Forbes, 25 October 2017
Author: John O’Brien
“A new paper says lawyer advertising is scaring patients into not taking their medications, leading to dozens of serious incidents – including six deaths from individuals who stopped using their blood-thinner.”
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Round table: The Moral Mandate of Public Health – Back to Basics
European Journal of Public Health, Volume 27, Issue suppl_3, 2017
Chairs: John Middleton, Els Maeckelberghe
“The core mission of Public Health is to protect and promote health through the organized efforts of society. The use of political power to achieve public health goals, and the imperatives to improve health and reduce health inequalities, suggest an inherently moral agenda, and thus require a sound moral mandate. However, concerns have arisen about a lack of unified vision and leadership within Public Health, with consequent concerns about heightened threats to the health of the public.”
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Patients’ Experiences With Communication-and-Resolution Programs After Medical Injury
JAMA Intern Med. Published online October 09, 2017
Authors: Jennifer Moore, Marie Bismark, Michelle M. Mello
“Dissatisfaction with medical malpractice litigation has stimulated interest by health care organizations in developing alternatives to meet patients’ needs after medical injury. In communication-and-resolution programs (CRPs), hospitals and liability insurers communicate with patients about adverse events, use investigation findings to improve patient safety, and offer compensation when substandard care caused harm. Despite increasing interest in this approach, little is known about patients’ and family members’ experiences with CRPs.”
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Doctors blame media for scaring patients off vaginal mesh implants
The Guardian, 6 October 2017
Author: Melissa Davey
“Inaccurate media reporting about vaginal mesh implants and the lawsuits associated with them has caused patients to become fearful of mesh procedures that may be essential to improving their health, New Zealand general surgeon Dr Steven Kelly says.”
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Slapping therapist accused of causing boy’s death said Western medicine was poison, court told
SMH, 4 October 2017
Author: Harriet Alexander
“A Chinese “self-healing promoter” accused of causing the death of a six-year-old boy allegedly described Western medicine as “poison” and encouraged diabetics to participate in slapping therapy instead of taking their insulin.”
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