It's impossible for the public to know when regulators first discovered Bacillus cereus at H&P Industry's plant because the FDA heavily redacted details from a decade's worth of inspection reports provided to the Journal Sentinel under the Freedom of Information Act. Records do show inspectors found the bacterium - which was the basis for the January recall of the alcohol wipes - during their weeks-long inspection starting Nov. 29. That was revealed only after the newspaper challenged the redaction. The newspaper's review shows H&P had serious problems including trouble with cleanliness - and that FDA inspectors knew it - as far back as 2000. Medikmark Inc., an Illinois company that sold medical kits that included Triad products, alleges Triad was aware of sterility issues as early as 2002 and continuing until the recent product recalls. "The products Medikmark purchased from Triad were unreasonably and inherently dangerous," according to a lawsuit Medikmark filed this year after the nationwide recall of antiseptic wipes. Triad has strongly denied the allegations, saying its products met FDA requirements.
A 60-year-old Army veteran won a $925,000 settlement with the Department of Veterans Affairs after he was blinded in one eye during a routine outpatient cataract operation, his attorney said Monday. Jose Goncalves of Hartford was blinded in his right eye when a third-year resident at the Veterans Affairs medical center in West Haven incorrectly administered an anesthetic during the procedure in 2007, attorney Christopher Bernard said. The resident injected too much anesthetic, causing Goncalves' eyeball to explode, Bernard explained. "Jose suffered excruciating pain after that botched surgery and continued to have severe pain for months afterward," Bernard said. "The damage to the eye is obvious because his iris is missing and his eyelid droops. If anything should ever happen to the undamaged left eye, he could face total blindness." The U.S. attorney's office, which represented the VA, declined to comment. The resident, Dr. Yue Michelle Wang, also declined to comment. She wasn't sued because doctors who work for the federal government have immunity, Bernard said. Wang incorrectly placed a needle with a local anesthetic directly into Goncalves' eye instead of behind his eye, Bernard said.
For a time this year, a psychiatric hospital run by the state of Maryland didn't have enough injectable drugs for schizophrenia patients who refused to take pills. Doses of the most effective drug to boost blood pressure in patients at risk of dying from infection-related shock were low at Johns Hopkins Hospital. And some local pharmacists were having trouble filling prescriptions for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. The drugs are among hundreds that have been in short supply at the nation's hospitals, and more recently, community pharmacies. Pharmacists, doctors and advocacy groups say countless patients are getting less effective or more costly substitutes as a result. Occasionally, they may be receiving inappropriate drugs or doses ? or no treatment at all. "Every month we review what's not available to us," said Pamela Lipsett, MD, a professor of surgery at Hopkins. "We get one [drug] back and lose another. And some diseases have only one drug. It's very frightening."
A wave of pharmacy robberies is sweeping the United States as desperate addicts and ruthless dealers turn to violence to feed the nation's growing hunger for narcotic painkillers. From Redmond, WA to St. Augustine, FL criminals are holding pharmacists at gunpoint and escaping with thousands of powerfully addictive pills that can sell for as much as $80 apiece on the street. In one of the most shocking crimes yet, a robber walked into a neighborhood drugstore Sunday on New York's Long Island and gunned down the pharmacist, a teenage store clerk and two customers before leaving with a backpack full of pills containing hydrocodone. "It's an epidemic," said Michael Fox, a pharmacist on New York's Staten Island who has been stuck up twice in the last year. "These people are depraved. They'll kill you."
Children on Medicaid under the age of three would not be prescribed powerful anti-psychotic drugs without a special authorization, under new rules the state Health and Human Services Commission implemented last week. In response to widespread concerns about the number of impoverished Texas kids being prescribed drugs like Seroquel and Risperdal — medications that can have serious side effects in children — prescribing doctors would have to get a prior authorization from the state, a steep hurdle designed to limit use of the drugs. The changes to state policy, which took effect June 14, are "based on evidence-based clinical criteria and nationally recognized peer-reviewed information," said Stephanie Goodman, a spokeswoman for the HHSC.
A 17-member independent advisory group has urged Congress to get tough on doctors who order too many diagnostic imaging tests for Medicare patients. These tests include MRIs and CT scans, which the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission says are driving up the cost of health care for America's seniors. In its latest report to lawmakers, MedPAC said doctors who invest in their own imaging equipment and place it in their offices have "contributed to the rapid growth of imaging and other tests" and have "resulted in a high level utilization that likely includes unnecessary services." When a doctor orders an X-ray or MRI for a patient, and that test is given in the physician's office, the doctor keeps the profit from the charge for that test. Under the new recommendations, MedPAC would have the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services come up with guidelines for ordering these tests, and doctors who order too many of them would have to get prior approval. The proposal has set off a howl of protest from doctors and medical groups who argue it will delay much-needed medical care for Medicare patients and likely intrude on the doctor-patient relationship.