Health Law

Anna Nicole Breast Surgery Video Banned

A Southern California judge has issued a temporary restraining order preventing a Texas plastic surgeon from selling, distributing or disseminating a 1994 videotape of breast augmentation surgery he performed on Anna Nicole Smith. The former stripper and Playboy playmate of the Year, perhaps best-known for her marriage to a Houston…

Aug 9, 2007 4:24 PM CDT

Somewhat Illegal Substance: Raw Milk

It isn’t completely banned in Boston—or in New York City, for that matter. But the sale of raw, unpasteurized milk is restricted in both Massachusetts and New York, as well as 24 other states, and it is completely illegal in another 15. This is encouraging an unlikely band of law-breakers,…

Aug 8, 2007 9:32 PM CDT

Pfizer Defends Nigerian Drug Tests

Pfizer claims its drug tests on Nigerian children saved lives in court papers filed in one of four legal actions being pursued by the country. Nigeria has filed criminal charges and $8.5 billion in civil claims against Pfizer, contending the company’s tests of the antibiotic Trovan led to the deaths…

Aug 8, 2007 2:49 PM CDT

Fight Over Drug Access Continues

The founder of a group fighting for access to unapproved drugs vows to seek an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled in an 8-2 en banc opinion yesterday that there is no constitutional right of access to experimental drugs. (See…

Aug 8, 2007 1:14 PM CDT

Katrina Hospital Murder Case Closed, But Civil Cases Continue

The criminal case against two nurses and a doctor accused of murdering hospital patients while working under horrendous conditions during Hurricane Katrina is now at an end, following a grand jury’s refusal to indict Dr. Anna Pou last month, prosecutors told the judge in the case yesterday. But it appears…

Aug 7, 2007 5:29 PM CDT

No Right of Access to Drugs, Court Rules

An en banc federal appeals court ruled today that patients don’t have a constitutional right of access to experimental drugs that have passed limited safety trials. The ruling (PDF) by the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit found no due process right of access, How Appealing reports.…

Aug 7, 2007 3:50 PM CDT

Mom’s Murder Leads to New Maine Laws

Over the years, William Bruce had reportedly attempted suicide, attacked both of his siblings, resulting in broken limbs, and threatened friends with an AK-47 automatic rifle, among other incidents. So no one who knew him well was amazed when the then 25-year-old paranoid schizophrenic, apparently in the throes of a…

Aug 3, 2007 11:31 PM CDT

Drug-Price Law Overturned

An appeals court has struck down a Washington, D.C., law barring drug companies from charging excessive prices for prescription drugs. The D.C. law didn’t define excessive pricing. But it said a prima facie case could be established if the whosesale price of a patented drug was more than 30 percent…

Aug 3, 2007 2:28 PM CDT

Where’s Molly? New Law Aids Searchers

An Oregon man’s successful search to find the younger sister who was institutionalized decades ago, when she was not quite three years old, is making it easier for others to follow in his footsteps. It has led both to a documentary film about his quest (“Where’s Molly?”) that premiered this…

Aug 1, 2007 7:14 PM CDT

Did Transplant Doc Speed Donor’s Death?

In what may be the first case of its kind in the country, a San Francisco transplant surgeon has been charged with intentionally hastening a patient’s death in order to harvest his organs for another patient. Dr. Hootan Roozrokh, 33, allegedly prescribed excessive medication to a mentally and physically disabled…

Jul 31, 2007 8:12 PM CDT

OxyContin Plea Deal Probed

The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing today on plea agreements reached in a case against the company that makes the painkiller OxyContin. Purdue Pharma and three of its executives agreed to pay $634.5 million earlier this month to settle charges they misled physicians about the addictive nature of…

Jul 31, 2007 2:10 PM CDT

Legal Battle Likely Over New Fat Fines

Once upon a time, American workers at the same company all had the same major medical coverage. No more–and that’s especially true at some companies that are now requiring employees to pay what amount to fat fines. A growing number of companies are starting to impose extra monthly fees for…

Jul 30, 2007 9:30 PM CDT

Dentist Wins Toothy Coverage Case

The joke isn’t on Dr. Robert Woo after all. The Washington state dentist is going to get the last laugh—and $750,000—the Washington Supreme Court has decided, in an insurance coverage case over an office prank. The prank—temporarily implanting an assistant with fake boar tusks and photographing her while she was…

Jul 27, 2007 11:38 PM CDT

TB Attorney Released, Not Contagious

An Atlanta trial lawyer who caused an international scare by traveling in May, against medical advice, with what was then thought to be a highly dangerous form of TB has been successfully treated and released. While Andrew Speaker is not completely cured, he does not pose a health risk to…

Jul 27, 2007 12:58 AM CDT

$21 M for Wrongful Birth Needs Fla. OK

A Florida couple has won a $21 million jury award over a misdiagnosis of their first child’s rare genetic defect that led them, they say, to have another child two years ago with the same debilitating disease. But Daniel and Amara Estrada won’t be able to collect the award unless…

Jul 24, 2007 8:30 PM CDT