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Cardiologist Gets 4 to 8 Years; Nurse's Accused Killer Charged; Spine Surgery Suit

— A weekly roundup of healthcare's encounters with the courts

MedpageToday
Legal Break over a blindfolded Lady Justice statue holding scales.

New York cardiologist Frank Pollaro, MD, was after admitting to having child porn on his laptop. Pollaro was previously registered as a sex offender for a similar charge from 8 years ago. (News 12)

A 27-year-old man has been , the 32-year-old Oregon nurse whose remains were found earlier this week. Bryce Schubert, who lived in Jubane's apartment complex, has not yet entered a plea on three charges: second-degree murder, kidnapping, and second-degree abuse of a corpse. (KATU)

Junior doctors referred to Lucy Letby as "," according to an inquiry into the NHS response to Letby, which began this week. (BBC)

A family in South Carolina alleged a surgeon during spinal surgery, leaving their daughter partially paralyzed. (WCSC)

California ob/gyn Robert Altman, MD, was accused by the state's medical board of . (Sacramento Bee)

Yale with dozens of women who said they endured painful egg retrieval procedures after a nurse at its fertility clinic swapped painkillers for saline. The settlement amount was not disclosed, but court filings from late last year proposed $2 million per patient. (New York Times)

Great Ormond Street Hospital in England is reviewing the cases of after concerns were raised about a former orthopedic surgeon there. (BBC)

A former executive at a COVID test kit company was sentenced to more than 6 years in prison for embezzling more than $1.85 million, .

Massachusetts device maker THD America will pay $700,000 to settle claims that it prompted doctors to to garner inflated reimbursement rates from Medicare and Medicaid, the U.S. Department of Justice said.

A nurse aide in Kansas was sentenced to a year of probation for by attempting to move her without help. Evidence indicated the 90-year-old woman either fell or was dropped the day she died. (Wichita Eagle)

An Alabama nurse practitioner , alleging unnecessarily harsh practices around its student debt relief program. Haley Clements enrolled in a federal program to pay off $25,000 in student debt, but when her supervising doctors died or retired, she struggled to find another qualifying program and was stuck with a $217,500 penalty. (Wall Street Journal)

A class-action lawsuit accused Aetna of violating federal non-discrimination law by of some gender-affirming surgeries. (Axios)

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    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.