Medical: December 2008 Archives

Lawyers for Bernard Madoff may be exploring an insanity defense. Psychiatry expert Dr. Keith Ablow believes Madoff's attorney could make a case for diminished capacity.  "He might try to argue that Madoff suffered from dementia or a bipolar disorder,” says the psychiatrist, who has served as an expert witness in high-profile criminal cases. “ He could argue that Madoff committed the fraud during manic, euphoric periods and that he never found the equilibrium to correct his crime. Or that he was so delusional that he convinced himself the investment returns were real.  “Insanity defenses rarely work,” Ablow says, “but if you can influence just one juror, he may stand a chance.”

For more, see NYDailyNews.com.

West Virginia’s emergency medical-care system got a “C” grade in the most recent national survey by the American College of Emergency Physicians.  While the state got a “B” for emergency-room access and high rankings for staffed inpatient beds and psychiatric beds, ACEP’s National Report Card on the State of Emergency Medicine gave it a "D" in public health and injury prevention and disaster preparedness.  West Virginia ranks 41st for infant mortality and 50th for both obesity and smoking, the report card states.  The report said that the state should start requiring mandatory pre-trial screening panels and require medical expert witnesses to be licensed in the state.  A reporting system is also needed for hospital-incurred infections and “adverse events” or medical mistakes. timeswv.com also reports:

“This report’s message is clear — we have to do a better job of supporting emergency patients,” said Dr. Joseph Hartzog, president of the West Virginia chapter of ACEP.  “The tough economic times we’re facing make it imperative that we do everything we can to strengthen our emergency-care system,” Hartzog said.

Forty-five yearold Antonio Richardson won $6 million last week against physician Arnold Seid in a medical malpractice lawsuit in Oahu Circuit Court.  Richardson went to Seid in 2001, when tests for health insurance showed signs of kidney disease.  For two years, Seid treated Richardson for high blood pressure, ignoring test results indicating kidney disease.  Seid eventually referred Richardson to a specialist, but by then his kidneys were already dead.  An expert witness said Richardson should have been referred to a kidney specialist in 2001.  Another witness said his kidney problems, if treated, could have been delayed or prevented.

Excerpted from StarBulletin.com

A Jasper County, Missouri, jury awarded John R. Brooks $550,000 Thursday in his lawsuit against Freeman Health System and two doctors who treated him.  Brooks was working at Milnot Co.’s condensed-milk products plant in Seneca when he was injured in a workplace fall on March 27, 2006. Brooks struck a floor causing rib fractures that went undetected and led to bleeding in his chest cavity over the next several days resulting in permanent injury to his lungs.

Brooks’ attorney argued Dr. Marzetta Parks missed diagnosing his client with rib fractures because she failed to order a computerized tomography scan, and that she sent him back to work with few restrictions.  Medical malpractice experts testified that by the time Brooks was seen by Parks on a follow-up visit April 3, 2006, and the rib fractures were discovered, the pleural effusion in Brooks’ chest had progressed significantly. He was sent back to work with no new restrictions, and a CT scan was not performed for another three days.

For more, see TheJoplinGlobe.