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Medico-Legal
Murder probe after man’s death post surgery ‘without consent’
North West police have launched a murder investigation into the death of a Mozambican mineworker during a high-risk procedure at a private Rustenburg hospital,...
Patient’s Groote Schuur ordeal prompts departmental probe
Western Cape Health has launched an inquiry into Groote Schuur Hospital (GSH) after accusations of negligence and emotional abuse by a patient transferred there...
Court grants widow right to dead husband’s sperm
A widow has won a legal case confirming she is entitled to use the frozen sperm of her dead husband to have another child,...
Judge allows expert testimony in suit against US baby formula firm
A Chicago federal judge last week said she would allow expert testimony that a premature baby cow’s milk-based formula – made by Mead Johnson,...
Another patient claims Headache Clinic doctor was negligent
Former Headache Clinic specialist Dr Elliot Shevel (81), facing murder charges after a patient died after one of his treatments in 2021, has been...
Limpopo doctor accused of attempted rape of patient
The Limpopo Health Department is investigating – in tandem with a police inquiry – after a doctor allegedly attempted to rape a patient at George...
Mandatory mediation for Gauteng medico-legal and other cases
Gauteng Judge President Dustan Mlambo has issued a directive that all civil matters with no triable issues should be referred to a mandatory mediation...
Lilly sues compounders over copies of weight-loss drugs
Four American compounders who were selling unapproved products containing tirzepatide are being sued by Eli Lilly, which is accusing them off selling the knockoffs...
US pharmacy chain forks out $350m in opioid script settlement
Walgreens, the second largest pharmacy chain in the United States, has agreed to pay up to $350m in a settlement with the Department of...
Health officials trained to handle medico-legal mediation
With medico-legal claims against state health facilities continuing to rise, the Health Department was moving ahead with plans to offer mediation before cases reached...
Controversial Cape Town oncologist may continue to practise, rules judge
A group of cancer patients who took legal action when a private hospital terminated a 15-year relationship with a controversial oncologist has triumphed in...
German palliative doctor charged with 15 counts of murder
Prosecutors have charged a doctor in Berlin – suspected of administering lethal amounts of medications to palliative patients – with 15 counts of murder.
They...
Weedkiller to settle suit over Parkinson’s claims
After thousands of lawsuits accusing its paraquat weedkiller of causing Parkinson’s disease, manufacturer Syngenta has entered into an agreement aimed at settling large swaths of those claims.
A...
HPCSA penalties for verbal abuse, leaving patients to die on roadside
Using unacceptable language, not communicating a diagnosis with a patient, and withholding treatment from a patient who subsequently died on the roadside were among...
Court upholds dismissal of doctor who used cocaine
The Western Cape Labour Court has upheld the dismissal of a Hermanus doctor for alleged cocaine use, disagreeing with the arbitrator’s finding that it...
Judge rejects Eastern Cape’s bid to pay damages in instalments
An Eastern Cape High Court judge has drawn the line regarding the provincial MEC’s offer to pay off – in instalments – the nearly...
US jury awards $14m to women molested by their doctor
A United States jury has awarded $14m to three women who were sexually assaulted by their doctor and who subsequently sued him and the...
Hospital probes how elderly patient was discharged with bruises
The family of Elizabeth Fosa (87) from Khutsong South is demanding answers after she was discharged from Carletonville Hospital with severe bruises on her...
UK’s infected blood scandal victims dying while waiting for payouts
Campaigners are seething as victims of Britain’s infected blood scandal die at a rate of two a week while waiting for compensation, saying payouts...
Cape Town surgeon suspended for alleged harassment
A Cape Town surgeon has been removed from his Panorama Hospital rooms after allegations of inappropriate conduct from a patient and harassment of female...
US court denies fired nurse’s bid to reinstate licence
The Tennessee Court of Appeals has denied former nurse RaDonda Vaught’s bid to have her licence reinstated, after her conviction in March 2022 of...
Gynaecologist not at fault for perforation, judge says
A Cape Town woman has been ordered to pay part of the legal costs of a case – which the judge dismissed – in...
Purdue Pharma files new bankruptcy plan in opioid case
Bankrupt drugmaker Purdue Pharma, owned by the wealthy Sackler family, filed a new bankruptcy plan on Tuesday, a major step towards finalising a proposed...
Cerebral palsy damages award too high, court rules
Three judges described as overly-generous the R28.8m award by the KZN High Court (Pietermaritzburg) to the mother of a child with cerebral palsy.
The KwaZulu-Natal...
Court gives the nod to surrogate for sixth C-section
The Gauteng High Court said there is no specific rule or regulation in the country guiding or regulating the maximum time a woman can...
Nurses ignore teen mum who gives birth to twins alone
An Ekurhuleni hospital has denied ignoring the pleas for help from a 15-year-old girl who gave birth to twins on her own. Neither of...
Four charged after boy’s hyperbaric chamber explosion death
Four people have been charged in the death of a five-year-old American boy who was “incinerated” inside a pressurised oxygen chamber that exploded at...
Medics who treated Maradona on trial for homicide
Seven members of the medical team that treated Argentinian football legend Diego Maradona before his death went on trial for homicide this week in...
Trump order on transgender care foiled again in court
Days after a Seattle judge blocked Donald Trump’s executive order on gender transition care for youths in a lawsuit brought by Attorneys-General, a US...
Not guilty verdict ‘huge relief’ for entire profession – Peter Beale
Former paediatric surgeon Peter Beale (78) – recently found not guilty of murder, culpable homicide and fraud in the deaths of three children on...
Mother sentenced for Gems fraud after daughter dies under false ID
A mother whose daughter died in hospital last year has been convicted and handed a suspended sentence by the Bloemfontein Magistrate’s Court for defrauding...
SA Defence Force sued for R5m for ‘disfiguring’ woman
Botched surgery to her arm killed any chances an aspirant SANDF chef had to achieve her dream 12 years ago, leaving her limb deformed,...
Surgeon admits he is ‘a pervert’ and abused children
A former French surgeon, on trial for sexually abusing hundreds of patients, told the court he’d used his status as a doctor to attack...
US gynaecologist charged with sexual abuse, reusing devices
A Memphis, Tennessee gynaecologist who is accused of sexually abusing four women, and reusing unsanitary medical devices in unnecessary procedures, was arrested on Friday,...
British paediatric surgeon suspended for ‘below standard’ ops
An orthopaedic surgeon who specialises in treating children has been suspended from a hospital in Cambridge, England, after nine surgeries were found to fall...
Paediatric surgeon Peter Beale acquitted of murder and fraud
Paediatric surgeon Peter Beale was acquitted on murder and fraud charges this week, bringing relief to him and the medical profession which saw the...
Staff 'turned blind eye' to rape-accused French surgeon’s crimes, trial hears
Victims and activists are questioning why nothing was done to stop a French paedophile surgeon from working with children, even though they were aware...
Parents jailed for withholding insulin from dying daughter
The parents of an eight-year-old Australian girl who died after they withheld her insulin – encouraged by members of a small Christian sect who...
White US woman sues after having black baby in IVF error
A US woman who unknowingly carried and delivered a baby boy who was not biologically hers has launched legal proceedings against an IVF clinic...
US court upholds Theranos founder’s conviction
A San Francisco court has upheld the conviction of Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes – who defrauded investors out of hundreds of millions of dollars...