We’ve posted several times about the anesthesiologist in The Dalles who sexually abused a number of his female patients. Dr. Frederick Field was accused of raping one female and sexually abusing nearly a dozen others. He worked at Mid-Columbia Medical Center in The Dalles, and the hospital claimed it took all the complaints seriously. It was also believed the abuse was first reported to the hospital in May 2011 and that the hospital contacted police right away. Now, though, reports of earlier sexual misconduct have surfaced.

This is a sad story, one in which the truth may never be revealed. A Minnesota woman who entered the Castlewood Treatment Center in 2007 to treat her eating disorder is now suing the center, alleging that she was hypnotized into believing she had been a victim of sexual abuse, had been involved in satanic cult activity, and suffered from multiple personalities.

The patient, Lisa Nasseff, was in the treatment center for 15 months and believes her psychologist was involved in the hypnosis. She also believes the motive for the hypnosis may have been partly financial, a ploy to keep her in treatment to extract medical insurance reimbursements for as long as possible. Nasseff also says the center used psychotropic drugs in addition to hypnosis to “treat” her anorexia.

You would think that having automated defibrillators everywhere would really help save lives, but the latest research seems to indicate this is not the case, at least in hospitals. Yes, that’s right–the old-school, low-tech defibrillators seem to have saved more lives than the fancy, supposedly easy-to-use, automated external defibrillators (AEDs).

In 2000 a committee with the American Heart Association made a blanket recommendation that hospitals should equip themselves with AEDs. It turns out this wasn’t really based on any actual evidence or research but just a general belief that, well, OF COURSE lives will be saved if new defibrillators that more people can operate are on hand. one estimate suggests, though, that nearly a thousand patients die each year because of the equipment.

Lawsuits have been filed against Advanced Bionics, manufacturer of the Advanced Bionics HiRes90k cochlear implants, by attorney Tim Edwards. The suits allege that the implants have a high degree of failure and that the company was long aware of the issues yet continued to market the implants.

It’s unfortunate, but we often hear about problems with assisted and senior living facilities, and in many cases, the victims are defenseless. Well, one Philadelphia family captured some pretty clear evidence on camera. The family of Lois McCallister, troubled by Lois’s allegations that the caregivers at the senior living facility where she lives were abusing her, planted a spy camera in her room. The camera caught several employees abusing McCallister.

Here’s an interesting case. A Portland couple is suing a hospital, clinic, doctor, and nurse practitioner for not diagnosing Duchenne muscular dystrophy in their second son. The couple had a third son who also has Duchenne muscular dystrophy. The couple says if their second son had been diagnosed earlier, that is, before they had their third son, they may have decided NOT to have the third child. This is because Duchenne muscular dystrophy, which is due to a genetic defect, is not curable and is often fatal.

Over in Mississippi two lawsuits have been filed against Mississippi Organ Recovery Agency (MORA) and the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMC) over two kidney transplants from a single donor. It turns out the donor had been infected with encephalitis. Of the recipients of the donor’s two kidneys, one died less than three months after receiving a kidney, and the other suffers from partial blindness and continued poor health. The lawsuits contend the kidneys are to blame.

We recently posted about The Dalles-based anesthesiologist Frederick George Field. Field was arrested in late July for allegedly sexually molesting two female patients at the Mid-Columbia Medical Center. The number has now increased to seven, and who knows how many more women are out there?

An article in the Oregonian states that one of the women, a 66-year-old, reported the abuse to the Mid-Columbia Medical Center several months before the hospital contacted the authorities. She felt as though the hospital was not taking her allegations seriously. The hospital claims it was first notified of any alleged sexual abuse by Dr. Field in May and that it acted promptly to call in police.

Anesthesiologist Frederick George Field was arrested late July on suspicion of sexually abusing two female patients who were under his care at the Mid-Columbia Medical Center in The Dalles. The incidents took place in 2007 and 2011 and allegedly involved touching in the genital area. The women were under anesthesia during the incidents and were thus unable to defend themselves. When the hospital was approached by one of the victims earlier this year, the hospital launched an investigation and contacted local authorities.

Everyone knows about the grueling and inhumane hours medical residents are forced to work. The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education just set up new guidelines that limits the hours medical interns can work at one time: first-year residents can work no longer than 16-hour shifts, and second- and third-year residents are limited to working no longer than 24-hour shifts.

Rite of passage though it may be, the long hours medical residents have been subjected to have caused fatigue-induced errors and may have put patients in harm’s way. Not everyone agrees with the new guidelines. Some medical educators feel residents won’t learn as much with the restricted schedules and also believe residents must learn to think and work under pressure and while fatigued.