An Anthem physician who had three patients die during plastic-surgery procedures in his clinic was found guilty of murder and manslaughter in Maricopa County Superior Court. Peter Normann, MD, was pronounced guilty of second-degree murder in the deaths of Ralph Gonzalez, 33, of Scottsdale, and Leslie Ann Ray, 53, of California, and of manslaughter for the death of Alicia Santizo Blanco, 41, of Gilbert. Throughout the trial, which began June 10, Normann's attorneys, John Johnsonand Vikki Liles, maintained that the deaths were accidental, the result of known risks of plastic surgery, and claimed that if Normann, 50, were found guilty, it would mean that all doctors would be liable for procedures gone wrong. Autopsy findings had listed the deaths as accidental. But in her closing arguments, Deputy County Attorney Jeannette Gallagher said the "combination of incompetence and arrogance in trying to cover up his (Normann's) incompetence led to their deaths."
Faulty radiation equipment caused a 20-minute closer of a hospital emergency room in Encinitas Saturday, according to officials. Four San Diego County Sheriff's Department deputies arrived at the Scripps Memorial Hospital Encinitas emergency department with what they thought were high radiation levels due to readings on their equipment just after 11 a.m., said Janice Collins, an official with the hospital. Initially two deputies went to the hospital with radiation concerns and two more were sent shortly after, according to Mike Gibbs City Chief of the Encinitas fire department. The deputies were isolated once they arrived to the emergency room due to the radiation concerns. San Diego Hazmat and County Environmental Health officials were called in to access radiation levels at which point the decision was made to close down the emergency room, said Gibbs.
Irvina Booker makes a most unlikely criminal. She lives in constant pain, disabled by multiple sclerosis and arthritis, a grandmother whose limited mobility depends on her walker, her daughter and marijuana. "I never smoked it before I got sick, and I don’t smoke it for fun," said Ms. Booker, 59, who lives in Englewood, N.J. She would not divulge how she obtains her marijuana, but said, "I don’t want to be sneaking around, afraid someone is going to get arrested getting it for me." Like many people who contend that marijuana eases pain and appetite loss from serious diseases, Ms. Booker cheered in January 2010, when New Jersey legalized its use in cases like hers. But a year and a half later, there is still no state-sanctioned marijuana available for patients, and none being grown, and there is no sign of when there might be.
At the urging of the state health department, 20 Louisiana hospitals, including several in the New Orleans region, have agreed to end elective births for any woman whose child is short of 39 weeks gestation, about a week shy of full term. Health Secretary Bruce Greenstein pushed the initiative as part of an effort to improve Louisiana's historically poor rankings in neonatal care, birth weight, infant mortality and other birth outcome assessments. Obstetricians sometimes induce labor at a mother's request before she has reached full term. The state has not released numbers of elective pre-term births, but Greenstein said the numbers are high enough to warrant a focus on the issue, given the fact that late-term organ development, particularly of the brain and lungs, correlate with better health outcomes. Studies also suggest that pre-term births carry higher rates of complications for mothers.
Early in my residency, I realized that like Pavlov's Russian dogs of yore, the other surgeons-in-training and I had developed a conditioned response to our electronic pagers. Our blood would rush and our breath disappear at the sight of one five-digit extension on our beeper's screen. The emergency room was calling.It wasn't that we disliked the E.R. Some of our most memorable training experiences occurred there. It was just the sheer crowding of that area of the hospital that made our stomachs drop. Day and night, the hallways of the E.R. were lined with gurneys, sometimes parked two rows deep. Patients were forced to wait, or "board," on those flimsy narrow stretchers until a bed became free at the "Inn," as the E.R. staff referred to the rest of hospital.
Following a spike in reported complications, the Food and Drug Administration released an updated advisory Wednesday about a surgical mesh implanted in women to strengthen vaginal tissue that can become weakened, especially after childbirth. In its report, the FDA says a review of industry literature and the adverse event reports has shown little evidence that the device, which is implanted vaginally or abdominally, improves pelvic organ prolapse, where a woman's uterus, bladder, or rectum can slip out of place. The review found that vaginal implantation exposes patients to a number of serious risks. The FDA called for a September meeting of a panel of outside experts for recommendations on how to proceed.