Medical: December 2009 Archives

Seven experts on interrogation techniques, confessions, coercion and juvenile suggestibility are scheduled to testify next month at a hearing that asks for a new trial for the teen convicted of killing Teresa Halbach.  Manitowoc County, WI, Judge Jerome Fox, who presided over Brendan Dassey's two-week trial in 2007, has scheduled five days to hear forensic psychology experts and arguments on a post conviction motion asking for a new trial.

Dassey's legal team says experienced police investigators used "psychologically coercive techniques" on Dassey, who was then a high school sophomore, enrolled in some special education classes.  Police and prosecutors contend Dassey was enrolled in mainly mainstream courses and understood his rights and the implications of his statements.

For more, see greenbaypressgazette.com. 

Connie Barton, Peoria of Ill. is one of more than 13,000 people who have sued drug maker Wyeth over the last seven years, claiming in courts across the country that its menopause drugs caused breast cancer and other problems.  In October, a jury in a Pennsylvania state court awarded  Barton $75 million in punitive damages from Wyeth on top of compensatory damages of $3.75 million. Barton says used Prempro in part because her doctor told her it could help prevent heart disease and dementia,

Medical expert Dr. Adriane Fugh-Berman, an associate professor at the medical school of Georgetown University, considers both Premarin and Prempro examples of drugs that gained widespread popularity before science had established the full extent of their risks. “Where there has always been a push is where there isn’t data,” says Fugh-Berman, an expert witness for plaintiffs in the hormone litigation. “Now, low-dose hormones are being pushed.”

For more, see ocala.com.

A group of plaintiffs have filed a lawsuit over recalled Medtronic Quick-Set infusion sets for its MiniMed insulin pump claiming that the defects in the insulin delivery systems for diabetics caused users to suffer severe injuries and hospitalizations.  The Medtronic insulin pump infusion set lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in the Southern District of Texas on November 30, on behalf of six plaintiffs; five diabetics who used the Medtronic MiniMed insulin pump and one of the plaintiffs’ husbands. All five diabetic plaintiffs allege that they were hospitalized after receiving incorrect insulin dosages from Paradigm Quick-Set infusion sets, designed to work with the MiniMed pumps.

The product liability lawsuit cites an FDA warning letter sent to Medtronic just weeks before the recall which highlighted deficiencies in quality control at its Puerto Rico production facility. According to FDA investigators, the plant had a wide range of problems that included lax testing of products for defects, proper record keeping, as well as not employing a properly trained medical expert for determining the danger of defects.

For more, see aboutlawsuits.com.

An Angelina County, TX, district judge denied a motion to exclude a taped conversation from evidence in the case of two Lufkin counselors accused of lying under oath.  The father involved in the custody case secretly tape recorded the counseling sessions. A motion to keep the tape out of evidence was made by the couple's defense attorneys, claiming that the tape's authenticity was compromised. After listening to testimony from expert witnesses in authenticating voice recordings from both sides, Angelina County District Judge Paul White denied the defense's motion.

For more, see luftkindailynews.com.

Bipolar patients treated with antiepileptics attempted suicide at the same rate as patients who received no medication or lithium according to Robert D. Gibbons, PhD, of the University of Illinois at Chicago, and colleagues. Gibbons has served as a forensic psychiatry expert witness for the US Department of Justice, Wyeth, and Pfizer.  Patients with bipolar disorder who take antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) do not have an increased risk of committing suicide, despite FDA warnings to the contrary, results of a new study showed.

The researches wrote "Despite Food and Drug Administration reports regarding increased risk of suicidality associated with AED treatment, the current study reveals that, as a class, AEDs do not increase risk of suicide attempts in patients with bipolar disorder relative to patients not treated with an AED or lithium." 

For more, see medpagetoday.com.

A jury has cleared Dr. Clement Samson K. Banda of any wrongdoing in the death of Thelma Fowler, 81, of Dunkirk. MD. The lawsuit claimed that her death was "directly related and proximately caused by the acts or omission" of the ER doctor.  Fowler was transported to Calvert Memorial Hospital on April 22, 2007, with complaints of chest and abdominal pain. She died three weeks later of sepsis after two operations at Washington Hospital Center. 

Lodowski, the attorney for the Fowlers, called medical expert witness doctors who testified that Fowler presented symptoms of a perforation during her initial ER visit on April 22 around 2:30 a.m. and the chest X-ray taken at that time did not show a fracture, which was the diagnosis. Doctors also testified that more diagnostics should have been performed to identify a perforation in her small intestine that the plaintiffs claim was present during her first ER visit.

For the complete story, see www.somdnews.com.