Colorado Law Blog

A former New York oral surgeon has agreed to plea bargain on charges that he was the mastermind behind a grisly plot to plunder corpses and sell body parts for transplants. New York prosecutors say Michael Mastromarino, 44, was making millions by covertly carving up hundreds of corpses at a Brooklyn funeral home and selling the parts for dental implants, hip replacements and other procedures nationwide. The story first broke in October, 2006, see Modern Day Body Snatchers.

Continue reading "Ghoulish Surgeon Avoids Trial" »

Posted by Linda Chalat at 01:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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?

Continue reading "Safety Not a State Concern?" »

Posted by Linda Chalat at 04:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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.

Continue reading "Study Exposes Medical Care Crisis Fairy Tale" »

Posted by Linda Chalat at 01:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

This holiday season even Santa is at risk for falling victim to unsafe or recalled toys. Tens of millions of toys have been recalled due to lead paint, small magnets, or toxic chemicals. With all this uncertainty about toy safety, Consumer Reports has put together twelve tips for buying safe toys this holiday season.

Continue reading "Even Santa at Risk" »

Posted by Linda Chalat at 04:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The names are familiar to children and adults alike: Pirates of the Caribbean, Winnie the Pooh, Barbie, Elmo. The brands are familiar too: Mattel, Banquet, Fischer-Price, J.C. Penny, and Dunkin Doughnuts. In the past few months, companies have asked you to check your closets and toy boxes for brightly colored but toxic toys, and your refrigerator for foods that may be unsafe too.

Continue reading "No Matter How Loyal, Nothing Safe from Recall" »

Posted by Linda Chalat at 03:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Officials from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration say they have dramatically boosted inspections of companies that harvest cadaver body parts for transplant, acknowledging weaknesses in government oversight of the multibillion-dollar human tissue industry that last year was rocked by scandal.

The FDA claims the inspections turned up no serious problems. But an internal task force report urges the agency to establish a method for tracking body parts from cadaver to transplant patient as well as other problems, but operators of accredited tissue banks and others familiar with the industry say the report doesn't go far enough to clean up the problem.

Continue reading "FDA Again Comes to Our Rescue" »

Posted by Linda Chalat at 08:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Two years ago, Christian Hageseth logged on to the Internet in Colorado and prescribed anti-depressant drugs to a California teenager with a history of mental illness and alcohol abuse. A few months later, 19-year-old John McKay killed himself in his family home.

Upon learning that Hageseth had treated McKay, and that he didn't have a license in California, state medical investigators urged local prosecutors to charge him with a felony. Last year they did, accusing him of practicing without a California license. The maximum penalty, according to the prosecution, would be three years in state prison and state fines.

Continue reading "Web Prescription Snares Doctor" »

Posted by Linda Chalat at 02:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The Food and Drug Administration took a step many consider long-overdue and proposed new rules yesterday that would make it tougher for scientists with industry ties to offer advice about approving new drugs and medical devices. The FDA said that most scientists with $50,000 or more in stock, consulting fees or other financial links to companies should be barred from making recommendations to the agency about a related product. Scientists with smaller financial interests would be allowed to participate in agency advisory meetings but could not vote.

Continue reading "FDA Conflicts To Be Limited" »

Posted by Linda Chalat at 10:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Last Halloween it was New York City funeral homes partaking in clandestine selling of cadaver parts, see Modern Day Body Snatchers – now the former director of the cadaver donor program at the University of California, Los Angeles, along with his modern-day Igor, have been charged with conspiracy and grand theft. Both have been accused of illegally trading body parts that had been donated to the University for Medical Research.

Continue reading "Cadaver Parts Becoming “Growth Industry”?" »

Posted by Linda Chalat at 04:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Four years ago the Florida Legislature capped certain types of pain and suffering damages in medical malpractice suits, yet Florida doctors still pay the highest malpractice insurance rates in the country. Now, the high premiums for doctors mean ultimatums given to patients - sign away rights to sue over possible medical mistakes or maybe give up your doctor.

Continue reading "Heated Debate Over Lower Caps" »

Posted by Linda Chalat at 02:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

We hear daily reports on results from clinical trials for new drugs, and they have a tendency to show positive results - particularly in trials with drug-company funding. A new study appearing on the website of the American Cancer Society, analyzes 140 trials of breast-cancer drugs. In 2003, trials with pharmaceutical-company backing showed positive results in 84% of the studies, compared to just 54 % for trials without industry backing.

Continue reading "Fair Trials for New Drugs?" »

Posted by Linda Chalat at 11:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

In the last two weeks we have experienced four major food recalls - tainted chicken breast strips, foul fresh cantaloupe, bad baby food (taking “organic” a little too far) and that most beloved of lunch-time standards, peanut butter gone bad.

Continue reading "Lunch loaded with danger" »

Posted by Linda Chalat at 02:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

CNN recently released the results of an 18-month investigation into minor-impact soft-tissue injury crashes around the country, reporting what every personal injury lawyer already knows. According to CNN findings, most of the major insurance companies when faced with claims from such cases, have universally adopted a scorched-earth strategy since the 1990’s. The leaders in this strategy are the two largest insurers, Allstate and State Farm.

Continue reading "Deny, delay, defend" »

Posted by Linda Chalat at 12:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Almost weekly, there is another report of previously unpublicized side effects of a prescription medicine currently being prescribed to American patients. . Most notably, in late 2004, Merck withdrew its arthritis drug, Vioxx, after a study was made public which showed that it doubled the risks of heart attack. About the same time, the Food and Drug Administration announced that antidepressants cause some teenagers to think more about suicide.

Continue reading "FDA Returns to Its Roots" »

Posted by Linda Chalat at 07:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

According to the Patient Privacy Rights Foundation, an Austin-based watchdog group, some 800,000 companies, government agencies and other organizations can tap into personal medical information almost at will. Pharmaceutical information is mined daily, your prescriptions, are an open book to all sorts of companies that don't have to tell you what they're doing with the information.

Continue reading "Money Paid for Your Medical Data (but not to you!)" »

Posted by Linda Chalat at 09:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

With fewer and fewer public places to light up, don’t you wonder about those poor souls still huddled outside in frigid weather, dragging on a cigarette? Well, if they haven’t kicked the habit yet, Big Tobacco is making it more difficult to do just that, according to a study just released by Harvard.

Continue reading "Smoke, smoke, smoke that cigarette..." »

Posted by Linda Chalat at 03:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Since 2003, at least one U.S. child has died and 19 others have needed surgery after accidentally swallowing magnets used in toys, the government reported last week. Most of those cases were believed to involve tiny but strong "rare earth" magnets that can link together in children's digestive tracts, blocking and even perforating the intestines, the researchers said.

Continue reading "Deadly Science of Toys" »

Posted by Linda Chalat at 12:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Just when you thought it was safe to venture back down the produce aisle...Green onions that are suspected of containing a virulent form of E. Coli has sickened Taco Bell customers in six states. It has been determined that the contaminated onions were grown in California by one of Ventura County's largest vegetable growers.

Continue reading "Beware Your Greens...Again!" »

Posted by Linda Chalat at 02:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

In 2003, after intense lobbying by the politically powerful trucking industry, regulators rejected proposals to tighten drivers’ hours and instead did the opposite, relaxing the rules on how long truckers could be on the road. Government officials had also turned down repeated requests from insurers and safety groups for more rigorous training for new drivers.

Continue reading "Safety Lost With Lax Trucking Rules" »

Posted by Linda Chalat at 04:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Florida recently amended its state constitution to limit attorney fees in medical malpractice cases. The Florida Supreme Court has ruled that attorney fee limits in medical malpractice cases can be waived—as long as lawyers fully inform their clients about the rights they are giving up and plaintiffs show they have done so voluntarily. The Florida Bar Association argued that fee limits interfere with plaintiffs’ right to find counsel of their own choice, and the Court agreed.

Continue reading "Limits on Med Mal Fees Barrier to Justice" »

Posted by Linda Chalat at 02:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Consumer Product Safety Council (CPSC) has reports of 20 toy-related deaths involving children under age 15 that occurred in 2005. Nine of these deaths occurred when a child choked or aspirated on a small ball or other toy parts. Also, in 2005 an estimated 152,400 children under 15 years old were treated for toy-related injuries in U.S. hospital emergency rooms. The majority of these injuries were not the result of a recalled or dangerous product. Instead, injuries from riding toys such as falls, made up a significant number of the injuries. To avoid such tragedies this holiday season, CPSC and the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) are working together to make this holiday season a safe one by warning all gift givers about the five toy hazards that can take all the fun out of any celebration.

Continue reading "Grandparents Gift Giving Help" »

Posted by Linda Chalat at 02:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A new national study reveals that school bus-related accidents send 17,000 U.S. children to emergency rooms each year, more than double the number in previous estimates that only included crashes.

Continue reading "School Bus Injuries Double Previous Estimates" »

Posted by Linda Chalat at 04:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A horrific tale most appropriate for Hallow's Eve - on February 23, 2006 in Brooklyn State Supreme Court, four men were arraigned on a series of charges reading like Robert Louis Stevenson’s saga The Body Snatchers. Prosecutors claimed that the men, who worked for a company called Biomedical Tissue Services, had engaged in a modern form of body-snatching. A ghoulish ring trafficking in bones, tissue and other body parts illicitly harvested from corpses at funeral homes throughout New York City potentially raked in millions of dollars selling tendons and ligaments for surgical replacement and bone for dental implants and orthopedic reconstruction procedures, sources familiar with the investigation said.

Continue reading "Modern Day Body Snatchers" »

Posted by Linda Chalat at 03:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Caveat emptor that cadaver! A Connecticut Superior Court judge has ruled in favor of a business accused of providing a defective heart valve for transplantation, saying that such human tissue is not a product for the purposes of a product liability claim. The issue of whether to consider processed tissue a product has been addressed by only a handful of opinions—including a California case and a federal court interpreting Utah law and all have held as the Connecticut court did.

Continue reading "....very, very dreadfully nervous" »

Posted by Linda Chalat at 02:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Home is where the heart is, but it may also be where the danger resides. In 2001, there were 33,200 accidental deaths in the home. The four leading causes of such fatalities are, in order: poisoning, falls, suffocation from an ingested object, and fires and burns. While no age group is invulnerable, the two most at-risk groups are children under age 4 and the elderly.

Continue reading "Home Perilous Home?" »

Posted by Linda Chalat at 11:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Common wisdom is that the best thing for our children is to get them outside to play - but this may not be such good advice if they head for the background playset. A surprising report released by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) revealed that over a ten year period, more children died from injuries sustained on backyard playground equipment than on public playgrounds. Data on playground related deaths reported to the agency from January 1990 through August 2000 was reviewed, and studied playground equipment related injuries treated in U.S. hospital emergency rooms.

Continue reading "Playground Pitfalls" »

Posted by Linda Chalat at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

You always knew it was a little slimy, and what it did to the sailorman was kind of creepy - but who thought it would kill you? Well, spinach won't be your only worry in the produce section if Congress follows through with plans to preempt state laws.

Continue reading "Scary Green Stuff" »

Posted by Linda Chalat at 02:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

It’s not something you do with a rod and reel or an alternative music group. Phishing is an online scam used to commit identity theft. A fraudulent, but official-looking e-mail is sent to a user in an attempt to con that user into divulging personal and/or private information, which is then used for identity theft. The sender is “fishing” for a bite from a few of the millions of recipients of the fake e-mail.

Continue reading "Gone Phishing" »

Posted by Linda Chalat at 12:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Last week the Consumer Product Safety Commission proposed new factors for determining when manufacturers have to report defective products to the agency.

Continue reading "CPSC Considers Relaxing Rules On Reporting" »

Posted by Linda Chalat at 02:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The Administrative Simplification provisions of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA, Title II) require the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to establish national standards for electronic health care transactions and national identifiers for providers, health plans, and employers. It also addresses the security and privacy of health data. Adopting these standards will improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the nation's health care system by encouraging the widespread use of electronic data interchange in health care.

Continue reading "HIPPA - What It Means To You" »

Posted by Linda Chalat at 08:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

With summer approaching, many famiies soon will be loading up kids and bags and heading out on a road trip. But, over 400 4-to-8-year-olds are killed in traffic crashes every year, and roughly 70,000 more are injured. Research has shown that booster seats are extremely effective in reducing injuries in crashes.

Continue reading "Safety on Our Roads" »

Posted by Linda Chalat at 10:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Yesterday the Senate once again defeated corporate efforts to limit jury awards in medical malpractice cases, taking the high priority issue, at least for both President Bush and the majority leader, Senator Bill Frist, off the table for this year.

Continue reading "Victory for Medical Malpractice Victims" »

Posted by Linda Chalat at 03:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

According to Safe Kids Worldwide, a coalition that aims to prevent injuries to children, drowning is the second-largest cause of accidental death among youngsters. In 2003 alone, the latest year for which statistics are available, 285 children drowned in U.S. swimming pools. 

Continue reading "Danger in Your Backyard" »

Posted by Linda Chalat at 09:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

In the face of public opposition and other looming issues, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist is now planning to bring Medical Malpractice legislation to the floor the week of May 8th, a week later than originally announced.

Continue reading "Medical Malpractice Victims to Lose Rights" »

Posted by Linda Chalat at 11:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Every parent and “weekend warrior” knows that you can no longer participate in any organized recreational activity without first being asked to sign a waiver or release.  Many folks assume that these waivers prevent them from pursuing a claim under any circumstances.

Continue reading "No Player Without Waiver" »

Posted by Linda Chalat at 01:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)