Current Events

They are known as Water Balz, and at first glance they look like marbles: small and spherical, brightly colored. But these balls are made of superabsorbent polymer, and they are capable of rapidly expanding to the size of a racquetball when doused in water.

This unusual feature has made Water Balz a popular toy. But it is also the very feature that has prompted some pediatricians to warn parents that the toys can pose a unique hazard to small children.  

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When Paul Ormond signed John Mitchell into a nursing home in Dennis, Mass., in June, he was handed a few dozen pages of admission papers. Ormond, Mitchell's legal guardian and an old friend, signed wherever the director of admissions told him to.

He didn't realize that one of those documents was an agreement that required Mitchell and his family to take disputes to a professional arbitrator rather than to court.

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Another HIPAA data breach settlement has been reached, this time with the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary and Massachusetts Eye and Ear Associates Inc. (MEEI), which will pay $1.5 million to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for potential violations of the HIPAA Security Rule.  

HHS officials announced Monday that the settlement also requires MEEI to take corrective action to improve policies and procedures to safeguard the privacy and security of its patients’ protected health information.  

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Johnson & Johnson (JNJ)’s Bengay and Sanofi (SAN)’s Icy Hot are among topical pain relievers that have been associated with a rare risk of serious burns, U.S. regulators said today.

The over-the-counter pain-relieving creams, lotions and patches are linked to 43 cases of burns on the application site, the Food and Drug Administration said in a safety announcement. The cases were identified in a search of the FDA’s adverse event reporting system and medical literature.

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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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