Medical Malpractice, Negligent Homicide or Failure to Discipline?
When I was an assistant district attorney in Queens County (NYC), New York, my boss, Richard Brown, decided to charge a local OB/GYN with murder, based on a showing of “depraved indifference to human life,” after that physician’s depraved actions during an abortion procedure in a storefront clinic left his immigrant patient dead. The New York [...]
Is Federal Preemption of Medical Device Claims Backfiring?
Today, we revisit the story of a West Virginia orthopedist who has injured and killed numerous residents of his state with his unmatched incompetence. ChicagoTribune.com reports that Biomet, Inc., parent company of EBI, the manufacturer of bone stimulators used by Dr. John King during many failed surgeries, has settled 24 out of 27 claims by [...]
New England Journal of Medicine Sides with Patients Against Medical Device Makers
An editorial in today’s New England Journal of Medicine laments the result of the Riegel v. Medtronic decision, based mostly on the NEJM’s concern that “preemption will result in medical devices that are less safe for the American people.” The editors point to the most recent example of preemption in action, in which a district court judge [...]