Medical: October 2009 Archives

In Feds Should Look At West Virginia Reform Laws, Donna Brinkel, RN, writes:

Thanks to civil justice reform, West Virginia is ahead of many states in reform laws. We need to ensure the same kind of proactive legislation continues at state and federal levels while investigating other alternatives.

The West Virginia Legislature has worked to pass laws to secure the medical liability system and maintain patient access to care. Reformation included a state-run insurance program for physicians to obtain liability insurance, a tax credit to assist with their rising premiums, prohibition of third-party bad faith claims, requiring notice of claims and a certificate of merit prior to filing a medical malpractice claim, expansion of the juries in medical liability cases from six to 12 members, a $250,000 non-economic damages cap, a $500,000 trauma cap, elimination of joint liability, creation of a patient injury fund, and more stringent medical expert witness requirements.

Excerpted from bdtonline.com.

The defense lawyer for Kristen A. LaBrie, the Salem, MA, woman accused of withholding cancer treatment from her 9-year-old son, who died in March, seems to be exploring a possible insanity defense for her trial.  On Wednesday in Salem Superior Court, defense lawyer Kevin G. James asked the court to allow $3,000 for him to hire a psychologist, Dr. Frederick Krell, of Salem, to examine LaBrie in anticipation that her defense at trial could be that she could not conform her actions to the requirement of the law because she lacked criminal responsibility at the time.

James must notify Assistant District Attorney Kate B. MacDougall if he intends to use a criminal responsibility defense prior to the trial. Then MacDougall will have her own medical expert examine LaBrie concerning that issue for a diagnosis.  James also was allowed $3,000 to hire an independent oncologist to conduct a medical record examination of the 3,500-plus pages and offer an expert opinion.

Excerpted from www.thedailyitemoflynn.com.

On Sept. 17, the Washington Supreme Court found unconstitutional a state law requiring patients, at the initial filing of a lawsuit, to submit a statement from a medical expert certifying that there was a reasonable basis for the allegations. The court unanimously said the certificate-of-merit statute encroached on the court's ability to set its own procedural rules, violating the separation of powers between the Legislature and the judiciary. In particular, the court found that the law conflicted with an existing rule barring additional verification of a case.

A majority of the court's nine justices also said the measure burdened patients' access to the courts by requiring them to submit evidence supporting their claims without the benefit of the full discovery process to uncover such facts. But two justices disagreed with that part of the ruling, saying the courts and lawmakers have the discretion to impose reasonable restrictions on cases that do not necessarily violate patients' rights. "In this case, the Legislature's interest to curb malpractice insurance costs outweighs the moderate burden on the plaintiff," Justice Barbara A. Madsen wrote. She noted that even without the certificate of merit, patients still must present expert witness testimony later in the litigation process.

Excerpted from amednews.com.

A nurse charged in the death of a Veterans Affairs Medical Center patient entered a not guilty plea Friday during an arraignment in U.S. District Court.  Maria K. Whitt, 32, of Mount Sterling, KY, is charged with murder in the death of 90-year-old World War II veteran Jesse Lee Chain, who died of a morphine overdose Sept. 3, 2006.  Senior Judge Karl S. Forester set a Dec. 7 trial date. Patrick Nash, Whitt's attorney, said he anticipates calling expert witnesses and said he might be asking that the trial date be changed.  "I think this case is going to involve a lot of expert testimony," he said. He also said he had questions about other health care workers who had been caring for Chain at the time of his death.

Ohio prison officials are considering a major overhaul of death-penalty procedures that might include changing out such key elements as drugs and an execution team. Prison officials are consulting with Dr. Mark Dershwitz, a University of Massachusetts professor of anesthesiology who testified for the state last year as a paid anesthesiology expert witness in a lethal-injection lawsuit in federal court. He has consulted with several states on lethal-injection litigation.

Ohio would become the first state to make major changes in a three-drug execution process that was essentially copied by 35 states from Oklahoma, where it was developed by an anesthesiologist in 1977.  Injecting deadly drugs into muscle and bone, using a single, more powerful drug, or using an entirely different combination of drugs are options being reviewed. Gov. Ted Strickland and prisons director Terry Collins are considering major changes after the botched Sept. 15 execution of Romell Broom of Cleveland, the first time in modern U.S. history that an execution had to be abandoned after it was started.

Richard Dieter, executive director of the Washington-based Death Penalty Information Center, said it is "significant that they're looking at a major overhaul of the process. This has been a long time coming." California and Maryland are looking at protocol and procedures changes, but Dieter said no other state is considering the major revamp contemplated by Ohio officials.

Excerpted from dispatchpolitics.com.

Prosecution medical expert Dr. Walter Edge of the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at Albany Medical Center testified Monday that four-month-old baby Matthew Thomas was close to brain dead when he arrived from Samaritan Hospital and that trauma played a role in his death.  The defense argues baby Matthew died from the sepsis, not at the hands of his father Adrian Thomas. Defense attorney Ingrid Effman says the baby tested positive for bacteria when admitted to the hopsital, and believes his injuries were related to the infection, not trauma.

"The doctor testified that by the time he wrote his report he wasn't aware of the results from Samaritan Hospital and didn't wait to make his finding until that blood culture came back. And that's important," Effman says.  Later in the day, two Troy police officers took the stand. Both testified to the details of Thomas' alleged taped confession. They told the jury that Thomas was fully coherent when he admitted to slamming his son onto a mattress several times.

Excerpted from www.fox23news.com.

A Bellingham, WA, neurosurgeon being sued for medical malpractice testified that modern medicine hasn't progressed enough to prevent the brain damage his patient suffered at St. Joseph Hospital in October 2004. Dr. David Goldman took the witness stand Thursday, Oct. 1, and told a Whatcom County Superior Court jury he did everything possible to prevent the damage Carol Martin suffered Oct. 7, 2004, following neck surgery. The Martins' attorneys, Christopher Otorowski and Thomas Golden, called orthopedic surgery expert witness Dr. Mark Palumbo to the stand last week to criticize Goldman's care of Martin and say it was below the standard of care.

Goldman performed surgery on Martin, but a blood clot formed in her neck afterward, a rare but known complication. That restricted her breathing, caused swelling and eventually led to severe, permanent brain damage. "This was a very bad outcome, and we all felt terrible about this tragedy," Goldman testified. "There is nothing I think I could do. This is the limit of what modern medicine can do. That's very hard to accept and live with, but that's my job."

Excerpted from thenewstribune.com.