A hospital in Portland, Oregon, is facing allegations that a former employee shared images of a burn victim who later died of his injuries. The parents of 31-year-old Seth Thompson, who died at Legacy Emanuel Medical Center after suffering severe burns during a fire in 2021, claim at least one employee took pictures of his remains and shared them for “entertainment and amusement.” (Becker’s Health IT)
Mount Sinai Beth Israel in New York City is facing a lawsuit that claims it ignored a star doctor’s sexual abuse of patients because his pain practice was lucrative. Hospital administrators failed to report Ricardo Cruciani, MD, to law enforcement or licensing authorities for more than a decade, according to 19 former patients who brought the suit. (AP)
Michigan physician Derek Lado, DO, will pay more than $135,000 to settle claims that he treated Medicare patients with foreign Botox that wasn’t approved by the FDA, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Michigan.
Prosecutors raised concerns that Jamie Lee Henry, MD, and Anna Gabrielian, MD, could potentially provide the Russian government with access to President Biden’s medical records, and charged that they were “useful long-term weapons for Russia.” The pair was indicted last year for allegedly giving confidential health information to Russia to help with the conflict in Ukraine. (CBS News Baltimore)
The wife of a patient who died after catching fire due to a defibrillator issue sued TriStar Centennial Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee, for wrongful death. (WKRN)
Five years before Darius Paduch, MD, was charged with sexually abusing underage boys, a former patient filed a complaint about similar misconduct, alleging Paduch photographed his erect penis and asked about his taste in pornography. Lawyers for the former patient said he is one of at least 37 plaintiffs now suing Paduch. (NBC 4 New York)
Eight more women are joining a lawsuit against Texas, alleging the state’s abortion bans put their health or lives at risk during pregnancy-related medical emergencies. The total number of plaintiffs now stands at 15, including 13 patients and two doctors. (NPR)
Oklahoma lawmakers signed off on a $1.05 million settlement with the family of a young state prison inmate who died of appendicitis despite five visits to the prison’s medical staff during the week before his death in May 2018. (AP)
Federal prosecutors unsealed an indictment against Boston-area addiction treatment center owner Daniel Cleggett Jr., alleging massive fraud, including using sober homes to run scams on the state, mortgage lenders, and others. (Boston.com)
Ohio physician Jeffrey Sutton, DO, was sentenced to 6 years in prison for illegally prescribing opioids and other controlled substances and for healthcare fraud. Sutton was also sentenced to 3 years of supervised release, restitution of almost $149,000, a fine of $20,000, and a special assessment of $5,200, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Ohio.
Kristina Fiore leads MedPage’s enterprise & investigative reporting team. She’s been a medical journalist for more than a decade and her work has been recognized by Barlett & Steele, AHCJ, SABEW, and others. Send story tips to k.fiore@medpagetoday.com. Follow
