Return to main website

A Skeptic Becomes A True Believer

February 10, 2009

I was skeptical when my hospital embarked several years ago on an initiative to reduce the number of hospital-acquired infections in our intensive care unit.

 

These are infections that originate from the tubes and catheters inserted into the body — for example, ventilator-associated pneumonia, related to a tube lodged in the windpipe to assist in breathing; urinary tract infection, related to a catheter inserted into the bladder to drain the urine; and bloodstream infection, related to a catheter threaded in the veins reaching the upper chamber of the heart.

 

Mind you, the tubes are critical for life-sustaining functions (breathing, nourishing, medicating and eliminating waste) during a serious illness when the body’s organs are failing. The problem is that during the recovery period, some of the trillions of bacteria that live on a normal person’s skin and in the alimentary, urinary and respiratory tracts begin to tunnel alongside the tubes into places they don’t belong. Here they can cause life-threatening infections.

 

Read Article: Washington Post

 

Posted By: Phoenix DUI Attorney

F.D.A. to Place New Limits on Prescriptions of Narcotics

Many doctors may lose their ability to prescribe 24 popular narcotics as part of a new effort to reduce the deaths and injuries that result from these medicines’ inappropriate use, federal drug officials announced Monday.

 

A new control program will result in further restrictions on the prescribing, dispensing and distribution of extended-release opioids like OxyContin, fentanyl patches, methadone tablets and some morphine tablets.

 

These products are classified as Schedule II narcotics and already are restricted according to rules jointly administered by the Food and Drug Administration and the Drug Enforcement Agency. But the current restrictions have failed to “fully meet the goals we want to achieve,” said Dr. John K. Jenkins, director of the F.D.A.’s new drug center.

 

Read Article: New York Times

 

Posted By: Phoenix DUI Attorney

Acupuncturists Dropped From Suit Over Needle Shards in Patient’s Heart

Surgeons removed two needle fragments from the inside of the right ventricle of Maria Swezey’s heart in 1999. No one knows how the shards got there, but Swezey’s legal team believes they entered her body while she received acupuncture treatments to her back, then traveled up an artery into her heart.

 

In a decision last week, the Appellate Division, 2nd Department, rejected that theory, and threw out Swezey’s claims against two acupuncturists.

 

However, the panel upheld the denial of a motion to dismiss filed by the physician who allegedly misdiagnosed her symptoms, holding that a triable issue of fact existed as to his purported malpractice.

 

Read Articl: Law.com

 

Posted By: Phoenix DUI Attorney

Should Chief Justice Recuse in Landmark ‘Wyeth’ Case?

One of the top cases of the current Supreme Court term is Wyeth v. Levine, asking whether a state law tort action challenging the labeling on a Wyeth drug is pre-empted by federal law. The Court heard the case last November, and presumably voted privately on how to decide it days later. But a decision has not yet emerged.

 

Now, the outcome of the case could be in question, because of the recent announcement by Pfizer Inc. that it would acquire Wyeth. Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. owns Pfizer stock that has prompted his recusal in previous cases. The outcome of the Levine case is likely to affect Wyeth’s value, and in turn Pfizer’s.

 

Read Article: Law.com

 

Posted By: Phoenix DUI Attorney

Rackauckas did not retaliate, federal jury finds

A federal jury Monday found that Orange County Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas did not retaliate against a veteran prosecutor for asking state authorities to investigate Rackauckas for alleged conflicts of interest.

Joseph P. Smith, whose lawsuit went to trial last month in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana, said that he respected the jury’s decision and that it was time to put the case behind him.”I felt I got a fair trial,” he said. “I have to get back to my family and my clients. That’s the end of it.”A spokeswoman for the district attorney did not return a phone call for comment.

Smith and two other deputy district attorneys traveled to Sacramento in 2001 to ask the state attorney general to launch a probe of Rackauckas for allegedly intervening in criminal and civil cases on behalf of friends and political allies.

 

Read Article: Los Angeles Times

 

Posted By: Phoenix DUI Attorney

Newer Posts »