February 2008 Archives

Yesterday the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a medical malpractice case, Riegel v. Medtronic, holding that the federal law, Medical Device Amendments, preempts any state laws regarding medical devices where the device manufacturer complied with federal requirements. By now, everyone is aware of how little protection is frequently offered by “federal requirements” when oversight is provided by agencies such as the Food and Drug Administration or the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Now state law can offer no protection against the negligently designed or manufactured medical device so long as federal requirements are satisfied – feel safer?

This week USA TODAY reported the discovery of a number of lawsuits that alleged corporate malfeasance in cases of pharmacy errors at Walgreens and CVS. Many were settled, and nearly all the settlements included confidentiality agreements.

A Minnesota woman who was declared brain dead last month left the hospital Wednesday after a miraculous recovery. The 65-year-old suffered a massive cerebral hemorrhage in January. Life support had been disconnected. Somehow, she regained consciousness as her family began planning her funeral.

A Santa Rosa woman who was badly injured by a bulldog has settled her lawsuit against the dog owner for $1 million. Wendy Rydberg will receive $900,000 and her husband and two children will receive about $33,000 each.

There is no medical malpractice lawsuit crisis in America, according to analysis released last month by Public Citizen. The new report, “The Great Medical Malpractice Hoax,” dispels oft-repeated myths of dwindling doctors and spiraling insurance premiums used to support limits on the ability of injured patients to seek redress in the courts.

A recent development in back care was hailed as a dramatic breakthrough. In a study of nearly 240 patients with lower back pain, the doctors performing the study concluded that the Prodisc, an artificial spinal disk, had worked much better than conventional surgery in which patients’ vertebrae were fused.

“As a surgeon, it is gratifying to see patients recover function more quickly than after fusion and return to their normal activities more easily,” Dr. Jack E. Zigler, a well-known spine specialist and one of the study’s lead researchers, said in a 2006 news release announcing the latest results of the Prodisc clinical trial.