Current Events

Higher than recommended doses of diarrhea drug loperamide (Imodium) can cause serious and even fatal cardiac arrhythmias, the FDA warned.

Although some of the 48 cases of QT interval prolongation, torsades de pointes, cardiac arrest, syncope, and other serious cardiac events reported to the agency have been unintentional misuse of more than the maximum daily dose for adults (8 mg in over-the-counter products; 16 mg in prescription use), most have been intentional abuse.

"The majority of reported serious heart problems occurred in individuals who were intentionally misusing and abusing high doses of loperamide in attempts to self-treat opioid withdrawal symptoms or to achieve a feeling of euphoria," the agency noted in a Drug Safety Communication.

Loperamide is a mu-opioid agonist that acts primarily in the gut but, in high doses, has psychoactive effects. It has recently been recognized as a drug of abuse and is recommended in internet chat forums for treating symptoms of opioid withdrawal.
Read more . . .

Hostess Brands is recalling 710,000 cases of certain snack cakes and donuts out of concern for people with a severe peanut allergy.

The company issued the recall Friday because the snacks on the list were made with flour recalled by its supplier, Grain Craft, that could contain undeclared peanut reside, according to the FDA website. The amount of peanut exposure is considered low enough that it wouldn't cause a reaction for most people with the allergy, but those with a severe sensitivity to peanuts could be at risk for a serious or life-threatening reaction.

Two people reported reactions at the time of the recall announcement.

Click here to view the affected products, which were distributed throughout the U.
Read more . . .

The husband of a Brooklyn woman who died of an untreated form of meningitis, slammed Coney Island Hospital with a lawsuit Thursday alleging that his wife was misdiagnosed as emotionally disturbed or suffering from an illegal drug reaction by "careless" and "negligent" medical staff.

Grisel Soto, 47, spent her last hours alive strapped to a gurney and prescribed anti-psychotic medication, while the lethal infection raged in her brain.

After she arrived in the emergency room last January, Soto was seen only by a nurse and a physician's assistant until she went into cardiac arrest several hours later, according to lawyer Sanford Rubenstein who filed the suit in Brooklyn Supreme Court on behalf of widower Jorge Matos.

The nurse mistakenly thought Soto was suffering an overdose of synthetic marijuana.

"The focus must now be placed on the damages this family is entitled to as a result of her wrongful death," Rubenstein said.
Read more . . .

You're thinking about pursuing a career in medicine, the possibility of getting sued for medical malpractice has probably crossed your mind (and if you're considering a new doctor, you likely want to know his or her track record). According to a survey from the American Medical Association released in 2010, over 60 percent of doctors age 55 and older have been sued at least once in their career. That's a scary statistic for aspiring doctors to hear. But as the map above shows, doctors are more likely to face this problem in some parts of the country than in others.

For its infographic, the career resource site Zippia used information from the National Practitioner Data Bank to calculate which states had the greatest number of malpractice suits in 2015.

The latest study of inpatient deaths caused by medical errors — this one by Johns Hopkins researchers — reveals the astonishing fact that in the 17 years since the groundbreaking To Err Is Human report made headlines, estimates of avoidable deaths in hospitals have not decreased, but rather have increased. Medical errors now account for more deaths in the U.S. than any other cause, except for heart disease and cancer, the Hopkins study finds.

The landmark To Err is Human study, published in 1999 by the Institutes of Medicine, estimated annual error-related hospital deaths at 98,000.
Read more . . .

Dive Brief:

• The number of medical errors dropped by 28% between 2004 and 2014, new research from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality shows.
• The analysis, based on medical malpractice payment reports, also shows a constant downward trend each year since 2013, when the rate edged up slightly.
  Read more . . .
  
  

 But two years later, she started having severe back pain. "They found a huge tumor in the middle of my back," she said.
Read more . . .

A top U.S. health official said Tuesday that it's likely more people will be found to be carrying a newly discovered superbug. The bacteria, found in the urine of a Pennsylvania woman, is resistant to antibiotics of last resort.

Beth Bell, a top expert on antibiotic resistance at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, also said officials investigating the Pennsylvania superbug case don't know how the strain of E.
Read more . . .

A federal appeals court on Thursday ruled that companies cannot force their employees to sign away their right to band together in legal actions, delivering a major victory for American workers and opening an opportunity for the Supreme Court to weigh in.

The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago struck down an arbitration clause that banned employees from joining together as a class and required workers to battle the employer one by one outside of court.

In its opinion, the three-judge panel said that Epic Systems, a Verona, Wis., health care software provider, violated federal labor law when it required its workers to bring any disputes individually to arbitration, a private system of justice where there is no judge or jury.

“The increasing use of mandatory arbitration agreements and the prohibition on workers proceeding as a class has been one of the most major developments in employment the last decade,” said Benjamin Sachs, a professor of labor law at Harvard Law School.
Read more . . .

WASHINGTON – Two U.S. senators have sent letters to automakers asking for information on front-seat collapses and the threat they may cause to passengers in rear-end crashes.

U.S.
Read more . . .

To Retha Floyd, 95, taking out a reverse mortgage on her home seemed like a sensible way to pay for needed repairs and preserve the house for her descendants.

But a $5 million class-action lawsuit filed this month alleges that two mortgage companies conspired to defraud Floyd and thousands of other elderly clients — including hundreds in the D.C. area — by charging them for home inspections that were both illegal and unnecessary. The charges were added to their loan amounts, resulting in less equity in the house.
Read more . . .