CHIROPRACTIC AROUND THE WORLD
Anchorage surgeon in photo suit settles spinal malpractice claim
An Anchorage doctor accused of photographing one patient’s genitals during spine surgery has settled a separate claim that he fused the wrong vertebrae of another patient, leaving her with permanent nerve damage.
Court records show that Dr. Louis Kralick settled the injured woman’s malpractice lawsuit, dating back to 2013, on Wednesday. The settlement, whose terms were not disclosed, headed off a jury’s pending punitive award ofjust over $275,000 in damages as well as pain and suffering.
According to a civil complaint in the suit, the woman went under Kralick’s knife in November 2013 for spinal fusion work on the lower five vertebrae in her neck. She later learned that the surgery had instead fused her four lowest neck vertebrae to the topmost one in her thoracic spine.
“[The patient] complained of constant pain at the base of her neck, numbness in her bilateral upper extremities, left greater than right, numbness in her left thumb, index and middle fingers, occasional numbness in her right hand and severe headaches,” the complaint read.
Kralick’s office had learned of the discrepancy from X-rays in post-operation appointments with the woman, according to the complaint, but she first learned of it from a chiropractor in Wasilla.
The woman subsequently underwent additional procedures to remove misplaced screws in her spine, according to the complaint. When the suit was filed in December 2015, she still needed further surgery and was experiencing neck pain most days she described as a six to seven, on a scale from zero to 10.
Kralick has previously been in the news due to a lawsuit filed against him by another patient in March, alleging that the surgeon took “one or more photos” of the man’s genitals during a December procedure using an iPhone and sent them to at least one other person.
Both incidents in the lawsuits took place during surgery conducted by Kralick at Providence Alaska Medical Center. Providence was named as a defendant in the smartphone suit, but not the malpractice matter.
Source: http://www.ktva.com
Three former Michigan cops sold personal info of crash victims, feds claim
FLINT, MI — Three former Flint police officers sold stolen police reports that included the personal information of crash victims, which eventually wound up in the hands of doctors, chiropractors and personal injury lawyers, according to a recently filed federal indictment.
More than 600 internal crash reports were stolen from the Flint Police Department and eventually sold to a third party for resale to medical and legal professionals, according to the federal indictment filed April 18 in Flint U.S. District Court.
Joseph DeSanto and Anthony Sereno were charged in the indictment with theft from an organization receiving federal funds and conspiracy to commit theft from an organization receiving federal funds.
Both men have pleaded not guilty to the charges and were released on $10,000 unsecured bond. Neither man has an attorney on file.
The indictment claims the conspiracy involved three former Flint police officers who provided the stolen reports to DeSanto and Sereno. Nearly $9,000 was paid for the more than 600 reports stolen from the Flint Police Department.
The indictment comes on the heels of two former Flint police officers pleading guilty to federal charges after admitting to selling stolen internal crash reports.
Former Flint police Sgts. Richard Besson and Jason Groulx both pleaded guilty on April 18, in a separate case in Flint U.S. District Court after being charged the same day with a single count of conspiracy to commit theft from an organization that receives federal funds.
Besson and Groulx were not named in the indictment.
Investigators claim DeSanto and Sereno made money by taking the personal information of victims listed on the Flint police crash reports and referring them for treatment to certain medical and chiropractor facilities or for legal services from certain personal injury attorneys.
The pair would then be paid for the referrals.
Crash reports can contain a wide range of personal information, including the patient's name, address, driver's license number and the severity of their injuries.
The state typically redacts much of the victim's information when crash reports are released to the public, and the courts have upheld exemptions to the state's Freedom of Information Act to prevent the release of that information.
DeSanto, of Boca Raton, Florida, was in charge of a company that operated in Florida and Michigan that would collect automobile crash victim information from police reports — some of which were stolen, the indictment said.
DeSanto's company solicited the crash victims and referred them to chiropractors, health care providers and personal injury lawyers, federal authorities claim.
Sereno, who has residences in Detroit, Metamora and Summit, New Jersey, worked for DeSanto, according to the indictment.
Sereno and another person, who was not identified in the indictment, then converted the stolen police reports into summaries containing information about victims and their automobile crashes.
These summaries were then used by workers at call centers in Boca Raton, Fla., to solicit crash victims. The companies would then send "runners" to visit crash victims at their residence to schedule them for medical and legal services, according to the indictment.
DeSanto also directed the use of a portion of the referral fees he received to fund the purchase of additional stolen police reports, federal authorities allege.
No lawyers who used the information were named in the indictment. But those who used the information to solicit clients could find themselves in trouble with the state's Attorney Discipline Board.
Source: http://www.mlive.com/
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