Medical: September 2009 Archives

U.S. District Judge Dale Kimball ruled Monday that Elizabeth Smart will testify in court about her interactions with the homeless street preacher who took her at knife point from her home in 2002.  The hearing will determine whether Brian David Mitchell, who allegedly wanted Smart as a plural wife, is mentally competent to stand trial.  Mitchell's defense attorneys do not object to the now-21-year-old testifying about the facts of her kidnapping and nine-month captivity but they oppose allowing Smart, as a lay person, offering opinions about the self-proclaimed prophet's state of mind. The prosecution has four experts listed as potential witnesses.  Kimball said forensic psychology expert reports filed in the case -- completed without Mitchell's cooperation -- use Mitchell's history to diagnose his mental state.

"None of Ms. Smart's proposed testimony suggests that she will be opining on anything other than her lay observations," the judge said in his ruling, adding that prosecutors have said Smart will present mainly facts, with limited opinion testimony.

Excerpted from sltib.com.

A committee of lawmakers in Utah gave unanimous approval today to a draft bill that would make the muscle relaxer/painkiller Soma illegal to possess and a Class B misdemeanor unless a person is under current, verifiable physician's care. The abuse of Soma among patients and street sales of the drug has reached "epidemic proportions in Utah," bill sponsor Rep. Trisha Beck, D-Salt Lake, told members of the Legislature's Health and Human Services Interim Committee.

If the 2010 Legislature approves the bill, it would, in effect, be the state's official recognition of Utah's so-called "other drug problem" and would put Utah among 17 states that have adopted stricter regulations on Soma than the federal government. The U.S. Federal Drug Administration has recommended that the drug be similarly classified, and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency is expected to follow suit.

Lawmakers decided they can't wait. Expert witnesses told the committee that incidents of the drug factoring into the deaths or major medical problems and in criminal activity increased nearly sixfold — to 3,845 from 645 — in Utah between 2000 to 2008.  The drug can draw as much as $80 per pill on the street, where it is getting notoriety as the thing to take to enhance the euphoria users get from taking other painkillers such as OxyContin and its street version, heroin.

Excerpted from www.deseretnews.com.

Richard J. Hubeny III, 53, has three weeks to hire a medical expert witness to testify about the effects of Tasers on human bodies after he was accused of shooting a police chief.  The Iroquois County, IL, resident is charged with aggravated battery with a firearm, aggravated discharge of a firearm and domestic battery after police were called to his home June 6 on a report of a suicidal person.

Onarga Police Chief Phil Statler was shot in the arm when a gun discharged while he and Gilman Police Officer Jim Lehmkuhl were trying to subdue Hubeny, Iroquois County sheriff's reports said. Hubeny had been shot in the chest with a Taser, model X26, before the gun went off.

Excerpted from www.daily-journal.com.

A federal appeals court overturned a Caltech graduate student's convictions on two counts of arson for his role in the 2003 torching of several SUVs at San Gabriel Valley, CA, car dealers, attacks authorities blamed on a radical environmentalist group.  The U.S. Court of Appeal for the Ninth Circuit upheld the conviction of William Cottrell, 26, on a conspiracy count, but the court vacated two arson convictions in its ruling, issued last week but made public Thursday.

The court agreed with Cottrell's attorneys, who argued that the judge in his trial should have allowed testimony from medical expert witnesses regarding Cottrell's Asperger's syndrome. "It was relevant and could have assisted the jury's determination of whether Cottrell had the specific intent required for aiding and abetting (arson)," the court's ruling said.

Excerpted from PasadenaStarNews.com.

Nationally known medical expert Dr. Michael Baden was called by the defense to testify Friday in Palm Beach that 89-year-old Elly Lorey died of a combination of natural causes - including Alzheimer's, heart and kidney disease - and that her death was not a homicide. In testimony related to whether Lorey was starved, the former New York City chief medical examiner and star of the HBO series 'Autopsy', said yellow spots in autopsy photos of the emaciated woman's belly showed that some fat remained on her body.

"I don't think there's any evidence from a medical examiner point of view that anything's here that would indicate somebody caused her death" said Baden.  Prosecutors are arguing that Lorey's daughter Kerstin Fenn and Kerstin's husband Toby caused her death by withholding food and medical care.

Excerpted from PalmBeachPost.com.

 

Dr. Jack W. Snyder was a physician, a licensed attorney and a full time senior official at the National Institute of Health (NIH). He also served as a medical expert witness in many criminal and civil cases across the United States, particularly as a witness for the defense of asbestos manufacturers. When he began working with the NIH, an ethics employee instructed him to stop doing this outside work as an expert witness, but he disregarded this for years.

Snyder got caught during a 2007 deposition with former Baron & Budd attorney Troy Chandler in an asbestos case concerning a welder who developed mesothelioma in the course of his work. During his sworn testimony, Snyder lied to downplay his role at the NIH and the corresponding conflicts of interest. He also lied by stating that available medical and scientific literature did not support a causal connection to cancer in even the most extreme cases of asbestos exposure.

Chandler wrote letters to Snyder’s boss at the NIH and to the Office of Inspector General to look into Snyder’s side work as a legal consultant. The U.S. Attorney’s office got involved as well, launching an investigation that ended with Snyder being convicted of making false statements on NIH financial disclosure forms.

Excerpted from mestheliomanews.com.

 

An article in this week's issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) reports that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has now acknowledged receiving 98 reports of suicides and 188 reports of suicide attempts that appear to be linked to use of Chantix, a prescription medication for smoking cessation. In addition, the FDA has received reports of patients taking the drug being involved in motor vehicle crashes.

At the same time, the FDA which has approved Chantix, seems focused on keeping electronic cigarettes, which have yet to be proven harmful, from the public.  A growing number of tobacco control and medical professionals are questioning the motives of the FDA. Medical expert Dr. Michael Siegel, associate chairman and a professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences at the Boston University School of Public Health, wonders why the FDA is threatening to take electronic cigarettes off the market.

“If Chantix has been studied and has been found to have likely caused 98 deaths and an additional 188 attempted suicides and it is allowed to remain on the market because smoking cessation is such an important goal, then what is the point of removing e-cigarettes from the market while studying its potential adverse effects? Suppose e-cigarettes were to be found to have caused 100 deaths. Would that warrant taking it off the market, since it - like Chantix - is helping people to quit smoking?” Dr. Siegel asks in a statement released by the Center for Public Accountability in Tobacco Control.

Excerpted from emailwire.com.

A new analysis finds lead levels in many lipsticks are higher than those reported in 2007 by the consumer advocacy group Campaign for Safe Cosmetics. This new analysis, conducted by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and published in a recent issue of the Journal of Cosmetic Science, used new techniques to determine the lead levels. 

Medical expert Dr. Sean Palfrey, a professor of pediatrics and public health at Boston University School of Medicine and medical director of Boston's Lead Poisoning Prevention Program, says  that the levels are low, but wondered if they could build up to more toxic amounts, especially in fetuses and children. "If you put this on your mouth every day, or little kids' mouths or when you're pregnant, is this small amount of lead building up in a way that would actually affect infants, fetuses and young children significantly over time?" 

Excerpted from ajc.com.

Based on a ruling from a Charleston judge, Bausch & Lomb Inc. plans to seek to dismiss the majority of active lawsuits stemming from the 2006 global recall of a top-selling contact lens solution.  Chief U.S. District Court judge David C. Norton in Charleston last week granted the eye-products maker's request to exclude the testimony of a medical expert in more than 1,000 complaints that have been filed by individuals.

Bausch & Lomb already has paid out more than $250 million to settle about 600 lawsuits linking MoistureLoc to a potentially blinding fungal infection known as Fusarium keratitis.  But after a three-day hearing in New York in June on the admissibility of expert evidence, Norton said in an Aug. 26 ruling that there is no reliable scientific basis in the 1,024 remaining complaints for arguing that MoistureLoc caused various eye infections.  He said attorneys who were relying on the opinion of corneal expert Dr. Elisabeth Cohen to support their cases "did not submit any peer-reviewed studies, articles or case reports concluding that there is a causal relationship" between MoistureLoc and the infections.

Excerpted from postandcourier.com.

Jason Stinson, the former head football coach at Pleasure Ridge Park High School, was in court Aug. 31 for the start of his trial on charges of reckless homicide and wanton endangerment in the death of one of his players, Max Gilpin. Gilpin was 15 when he collapsed on the PRP practice field on August 20, 2008. Gilpin died three days later in the hospital.

Emergency medicine expert and U of L Professor Dr. William Smock has testified in the past as an expert witness for police and prosecutors. "The opinion was that Max, he died of heat stroke, but he did not die of dehydration," Smock said. "That was not the cause of his heat stroke. Based upon the information that I had read, in the medical record and the emergency medical literature, that the most likely cause of Max's heat stroke was that related to the use of amphetamines. That would have been Adderall."

Prosecutors argued that Smock's background does not qualify him as an expert on Adderall, a drug used to treat narcolepsy and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Excerpted from wave3.com.