AHLA's monthly podcast featuring health lawyer and blogger Norm Tabler's informative and entertaining take on recent health law and other legal developments.
To learn more about AHLA and the educational resources available to the health law community, visit americanhealthlaw.org.
AHLA's monthly podcast featuring health lawyer and blogger Norm Tabler's informative and entertaining take on recent health law and other legal developments.
To learn more about AHLA and the educational resources available to the health law community, visit americanhealthlaw.org.
This episode of A H L A. Speaking of health law is brought to you by A H L A members and donors like you. For more information, visit american health law.org.
Speaker 2:Hi, I'm Norm Taber with this month's edition of the Lighter Side of Health Law, healthy as a Horse. Here's a puzzle for you. Why is it that the same Americans who say they're afraid of Covid 19 vaccines are signing up by the thousands to take Ivermectin? A drug normally used for deworming horses, the American College of ER physicians has joined the c d warning patients not to do it, but they're not listening and neither are some doctors. The CDC says Ivermectin prescriptions had risen to 88,000 a week as of mid-August compared to only 3,600 a week before the pandemic. The cdc, d c and the F D A are emphatic that Ivermectin will not protect you from Covid V, but on the plus side, none of the people in the clinical trial got saddle source. It pays to be ignorant. Sometimes it pays to be ignorant. Here's a case in point when Amer Newlan alleged that the surgeon who operated on his gallbladder committed malpractice, he sued the hospital. The hospital moved for summary judgment on the grounds that the surgeon was an independent contractor, not an employee, and a hospital is not responsible for the acts of an independent contractor. Amer responded with something like, Hey, I only went to the ninth grade. The surgeon was in a building right behind the hospital, and I assumed that everybody in the building was a hospital employee. The building being right there behind the hospital and all the Indiana Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Amer saying that his belief, although incorrect was reasonable. The case is anonymous. Hospital versus Newland Speedy Justice. You've heard the saying, justice delayed is Justice de Hyde. Well, Leslie Corey of Wilkesboro, Pennsylvania says the opposite. She says, justice speeded up is justice denied when her husband died after treatment, she sued the hospital nurse and physician group for medical malpractice and wrongfully altering medical records. After a seven day long trial, the jury took just 14 minutes to bring in a verdict for the defendants on appeal, Leslie says, that's too fast and that the jury could not have done its job correctly in 14 minutes. Her brief quotes a dictionary definition of deliberation as long and careful consideration or discussion, slow and careful movement of thought. I can't help but be a little sympathetic with Leslie, but then where do you draw the line? How many minutes would it take before it qualifies as deliberation? The case is Corey versus Wilkesboro Hospital, Pennsylvania Superior Court, the 10 million oversight. Melinda Dennis underwent surgery at Georgetown University Hospital. She says the surgeon committed malpractice that required still more surgeries, all of which made her unable to work, forcing her into bankruptcy to discharge$86,000 in debts. Then she sued the hospital and the surgeon for a hefty 10 million. You may have guessed what happened next. The defendant's move for dismissal. Why? Because she had not not listed the claim as an asset on her bankruptcy filing. Hey, it was an accident, an oversight. Melinda argued the court said it didn't care if she had a 10 million claim. The creditors in bankruptcy had a right to go after a piece of it, a right. She had denied them by failing to list it as an asset. What's more? If she had listed the claim, then the hospital could have sought to negotiate a settlement in bankruptcy court. It did not help Melinda's case that one of the debts she listed was what she owed for wound dressings that she needed after the surgeries. The case is Dennis V. Jackson DC Court of Appeals. The spirit of Flip Wilson. Listeners of a certain age will remember comedian Flip Wilson, a television fixture in the sixties and seventies. He frequently appeared in drag as Geraldine, a tough but good-hearted woman in love with a boyfriend named Killer. Though good-hearted Geraldine frequently strayed from the straight and narrow whenever caught, she had already made all-purpose. Excuse the devil made me do it. Geraldine came to mind when I read about Elizabeth Holmes defense in the fraud case brought against her by the Department of Justice. Her company, Theranos produced machines that could perform a blood test with one tiny drop of blood detecting everything from cancer to cholesterol. Her wealth rose to an estimated 4.5 billion. There was only one problem. It was all a fraud. The machines were wildly unreliable. When the test results were accurate, it was often because the company sent the samples to a conventional testing company and passed the results off as their own. When her trial opened last month, guess what her defense was? Was it, Hey, the machines really did work or I didn't do anything wrong? No channeling Geraldine. Her defense is, Sonny made me do it and just, who is Sonny? You're wondering? Well, Sonny is her ex-boyfriend, sunny Alwan, who was an executive at Theranos. Along with Elizabeth, she says Son had a fali like control over her and she had no power to resist. I wonder if Sonny knows killer life imitating art. Speaking of the Elizabeth Holmes trial, an early development is a textbook example of life imitating art or at least trying to imitate art. You'll recall that Elizabeth is mounting a Sonny Mami doit defense, and Sonny is being tried separately. But of course he wants to know what Elizabeth is saying at her trial. He also knows Elizabeth's trial is the most popular show in town with overflow crowds every day. Well, what do you do when you want seats at a truly popular performance? Right? You reserve them in advance. That's what Sunny did, or at least tried. He sent the judge a polite request that he reserved two ringside seats for Sonny's lawyers. The judge had one word for the request. He stamped denied at the top and bottom of the request meddling. Karen's strike again. Galveston attorney Mark Metzger had a crackerjack idea for bringing a little happiness into the lives of fellow Galvestonians as they braced for Hurricane Nicholas. So how did Mark cheer them up? Well, he disguised himself as serial killer Michael Myers of Halloween movie Fame Complete with Bloody Knife, and he walked that way along the beach. Did Galvestonians feel cheered up? No. The ones who saw him felt well scared as hell. They called the police who swarmed all over Mark disarming him and handcuffing him. That's when they discovered that the knife was made of rubber and the blood was paint. They'd charged him with disorderly conduct, asked for a comment. Mark replied, I would've gotten away with it if it hadn't been for those meddling Karens who called the cops a judge with the heart. Federal judge Charles Breyer has a soft spot for associates, not partners, just associates. He's overseeing the massive multi-district opioid litigation against McKenzie and Company. He wanted to make sure that associates did not have to work on the case during Christmas week. So he did two things. First, he moved the deadline for McKenzie's Motion to Dismiss from January 14 to December 10th, so it would be over before Christmas week. Second, he ordered all partners to forbid associates to work on the case during Christmas week, and he specifically said the no work order did not apply to partners, noting that he did not care whether or not they worked that week. I've always felt a little sorry for Judge Breyer. He's had an excellent career and a prestigious position on the federal bench, but just about every article written about him reminds you that he's the little brother of Steven Breyer. Yes, that's Steven Breyer. Justice of the United States Supreme Court. Good news, bad news. A Texas appellate court had some good news and bad news for surgery. Patient Michael Sonier after undergoing hernia surgery at Christus Good Shepherd, where he worked as a nurse, Michael awoke to find that some or pranksters had painted his toenails red, written crude remarks on his buttocks, including Robin was here and attached a colostomy bag as a joke. The good news is that the court agreed that these pranks qualified as medical malpractice insults are the same as injuries. The bad news is that since the pranks were malpractice, Michael was required to submit a medical expert's opinion and he had not done it. Case dismissed. But I wonder, what would an expert have said? Maybe something like, given Michael's skin tone, the shade of red on his toenails was all wrong. The case is Christus Good Shepherd versus Sony a Texas Court of Appeals. Well, that's it for this month's edition of the Lighter Side of Health Law. I hope you enjoyed it. Check your A H L A Weekly and Health Law Connections Magazine for the next edition.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening. If you enjoy this episode, be sure to subscribe to A H L A speaking of health law wherever you get your podcasts. To learn more about A H L A and the educational resources available to the health law community, visit American health law.org.