Current Events

Most hospitals in Southeast Michigan have received an email from the U.S. Department of Justice that asks the hospitals to examine any inappropriate implantable defibrillator surgeries on Medicare patients.

In an unusual request, the department also wants the hospitals to identify the number of improper surgeries and estimate potential penalties under the federal False Claims Act.

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Bradley Birkenfeld, the former UBS AG (UBSN) banker who went to prison after telling the Internal Revenue Service how the bank helped thousands of Americans evade taxes, secured a whistle-blower award of $104 million, the largest individual federal payout in U.S. history.

Birkenfeld told authorities how UBS bankers came to the U.S. to woo rich Americans, managed $20 billion of their assets and helped them cheat the IRS. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy in 2008, a year after reporting the bank’s conduct to the Justice Department, U.S. Senate, IRS and Securities and Exchange Commission. He left prison on Aug. 1.

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Today, Avery is a chatty 9-year-old who just learned to roller-skate. She is old enough to know that she was not really attacked by monsters. The culprit was a broken wire from the defibrillator that keeps her heart beating normally. Like her mother and two brothers, she has an inherited condition that makes her prone to a fatal heart rhythm. After Avery’s episode, doctors removed the faulty wire, made by Medtronic, and replaced it with a new one made by St. Jude Medical.

Now it is possible that one is damaged, too. The wire, or lead, known as the Riata, was recalled in December after St. Jude warned doctors that internal cables were poking through the outer casing, causing unwanted shocks or failing to work when needed. Nearly 20 percent of the 128,000 people worldwide who have the Riata may be affected, according to the company.

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The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and a Livonia-based window-blinds manufacturer announced Thursday they're recalling more than 450,000 custom blinds.

A 2-year-old Commerce Township girl reportedly was strangled by a vertical-blinds cord in 2009. Blinds Xpress owner Larry Carollo said he settled a lawsuit with the family.

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Summer Infant is recalling about two million baby bathers because when the bather is lifted and/or carried with an infant in it, its folding wire frame can suddenly disengage from the side hinge, dropping the baby out of the bather, posing a fall hazard and a risk of serious head injury to infants.

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Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc. and parent company Johnson & Johnson on Thursday announced a $181 million settlement with 36 states and the District of Columbia over charges of marketing anti-psychotic drugs for non-approved uses.

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, representing one of the states involved, claimed in a court filing that Janssen engaged in deceptive practices from 1998 to at least 2004 in the marketing of the drugs Risperdal, Risperdal Consta, Risperdal M-Tab and Invega. The multistate settlement comes amid a similar federal case that is still pending.

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The city has doled out $134 million this year for medical mishaps at its 11 public hospitals, some during child birth and others resulting in permanent disabilities.

And taxpayers are picking up the tab — more than half a billion dollars in the last four fiscal years alone, city records show.

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Health officials in Mexico order recall based on potentially harmful pharmaceutical ingredients.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is warning consumers that Reumofan Plus, marketed as a “natural” dietary supplement for pain relief and other serious conditions, contains several active pharmaceutical ingredients not listed on the label that could be harmful.

Consumers who are currently taking Reumofan Plus or who have recently stopped taking Reumofan Plus should immediately consult a health care professional. Consumers should not buy or start using the product.

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A Jefferson Parish jury has awarded a Webster Parish woman $24.2 million in damages in a medical malpractice lawsuit. Jurors sided with the woman in finding that her toddler was left with irreversible brain damage after an infusion pump malfunctioned during his surgery at Ochsner Clinic Foundation seven years ago.

Tyronglia Willis, of Springhill, sued Ochsner and the pump manufacturers in 24th Judicial District Court in Gretna on behalf of her son, Ty'Kevion Kidd, who was 3 when he underwent surgery in March 2005 at the Jefferson Highway hospital to correct a congenital heart defect.

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U.S. health regulators announced a recall of CareFusion's Alaris pump module Model 8100, saying a potential keypad malfunction in the infusion pump could cause serious injury or death.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said the affected pump modules, used for delivering a variety of fluids, drugs and blood products to patients, were manufactured between October 2011 and February 2012.

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A New Jersey teenager left brain-damaged after being struck by a line drive off a metal bat while he was playing in a youth baseball game will receive $14.5 million to settle his lawsuit against the bat manufacturer, Little League Baseball and a sporting goods chain.

The settlement of Steven Domalewski's lawsuit was announced in state Superior Court on Wednesday morning in Passaic County. The boy, now 18, lives in Wayne, N.J. His family had claimed the metal bat was unsafe because baseballs could carom off it at much faster speeds than wooden bats.

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