http://www.forbes.com/sites/billsinger/2012/01/24/stockbroker-defrauds-cerebral-palsy-victim-and-elderly/print/

Ralph Thomas of Baltimore was a broker and financial planner for Harbor Financial, and from February 2004 until July 2010, he worked for Wells Fargo Advisors.

Thomas met a woman, only identified as KL, who was trustee for a $3 million settlement for her daughter, who developed cerebral palsy from injuries she sustained at birth. Thomas, allegedly got KL to transfer the trust to Harbor Financial, according to Forbes.

Then Thomas allegedly did his dirty work. He was accused of stealing $757,000 from the trust account, using the money to pay off his credit cards and other personal bills.

Then , from June 2006 to May 2009, Thomas took out three mortgages in KL’s name on her home. He put that money in her Harbor Bank account, and then allegedly withdrew that money, about $27,000. He was also accused of takingt $100,000 from the  trust account to buy a home.

But that wasn’t all.     

In 2009, the retired LM made Thomas her financial advisor. LM had an 85-year-old sister with dementia, and she and her sister shared money from an annuity, according to Forbes. Thomas allegedly took $75,000 from LM’s accounty, one again using the money to trim his credir card bills.

A federal indictment outlining Thomas’s alleged crimes was handed up last August. He was facing up to 20 years in jail, a $250,000 fine for mail fraud, and forfeiture of $838,000 in funds and luxury items that he had.

But in September, Thomas entered a plea bargain, where he only pleaded guilty to mail fraud. He has to make $838,000 in restitution and forfeit some of his property. And he can’t can’t associate with any firm that’s a member of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), which agreed to his settlement offer to dispose of the allegations pending against him. 

Columnist Bill Singer said that letting Thomas, who he described as a “low life,” just make a settlement — with no admission of wrongdoing — is just wrong.

“Armed with with a fuller understanding of Thomas’s crimes, I re-read FINRA’s self-regulatory case and realized how pathetic Wall Street regulation truly is,” Singer wrote. “Notwithstanding the epic nature of Thomas’s atrocities, FINRA stil felt it okay to accept a settlement that did not require him to admit its charges. Seriously?”

That’s what I would ask myself, about a guy who allegedly robbed a cerebral palsy victim and a woman with dementia.  Seriously?     

http://southtownstar.suntimes.com/news/9180559-418/advocate-agrees-to-75m-malpractice-award.html

 Advocate Health and Hospitals Corp., parent company of Christ Medical, agreed to the settlement of a lawsuit filed by Tom and Donna Tribble, legal guardians for Elliana Tribble. The suit, filed in 2009, alleged that the physicians and nurses at Christ Medical “delayed in responding to signs of fetal distress before” Elliana’s birth in August 2002, the Southtown Star reported Friday.

Elliana sustained brain damage from oxygen deprivation during her birth, and has cerebral palsy.

Under the settlement, the hospital does not admit any malpractice on the part of its staff, according to the Southtown Star. 

Tom and Donna Tribble, who live in Northbrook, Ill., are the parents of Elliana’s father, Sean Tribble. Sean and Joan Soka, Elliana’s parents, never got married, and the grandparents got custody of the child.

Elliana is disabled and in a wheelchair. Her grandparents told the Southtown Star that they will take part of the settlement to buy her a wheelchair that she will be able to steer with head movements and to make the doors in their home handicapped accessible.   

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/bronx/2011/10/20/2011-10-20_disabled_man_wins_openshut_case_vs_coop_city.html

New York State Supreme Court Judge Mary Ann Brigantti-Hughes upheld a ruling that mandated that Riverbay, which manages Co-op City, install automatic door openers at 100 Aldrich St. 

John Rose, 68, has cerebral palsy and is confined to a motorized wheelchair. He had filed a complaint against Riverbay with the New York City Commission of Human Rights because he couldn’t open the front door of his building without help, according to the News. Last year the commission found that Riverbay had to install the automatic doors to accommodate Rose, a ruling that was appealed by Riverbay.

The commission had fined Riverbay $50,000 and gave Rose damages of $51,000.

Judge Brigantti-Hughes upheld the commission’s decision, the News reported. But she reduced the fine to $5,000 and cut the damages to $16,000.

The judge found that Riverbay wasn’t giving Rose an “unsegregated accommodation,” which is mandated by city law, according to the News.

Riverbay complained that it would cost about $50,000 to install the automated doors.

http://www.necn.com/02/03/11/Maine-federal-judge-lets-class-action-in/landing_politics.html?&blockID=3&apID=44b9b713d7c84c4cafdef101f51e7593

Earlier this week U.S. District Court Judge John Woodcock gave the class-action designation to a suit lodged by three men with cerebral palsy who want to live on their own but still receive services from the Maine Department of Health and Human Services.

That lawsuit, filed in December 2009, claims that Maine was  in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Nursing Home Reform Act for not letting the three men reside outside nursing homes.

Judge Woodcock ruled that 40 nursing home residents with cerebral palsy and other conditions can join in the 2009 lawsuit. 

http://www.marquette.edu/omc/newscenter/recent.php?subaction=showfull&id=1288193564&archive=&start_from=&ucat=1&

Gerald Harris, professor of biomedical engineering, is the principal investigator for the MU-RERC project, which will also involve other departments at Marquette, as well as the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at the Medical College of Wisconsin, Shriners Hospital for Children in Chicago, the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and the Milwaukee School of Engineering.

“Everything we are undertaking is designed to have a direct impact on children, to improve their care, rehabilitation and quality of life,” Harris said. The intent of the grant is to transfer and commercialize the research to “offer new tools, better technologies and improved treatment strategies” for  children with cerebral palsy, clubfoot, spina bifida, spinal cord injury, brittle bone disease (osteogenesis imperfecta) and other conditions that cause mobility and manipulation problems.

Harris, director of the Orthopaedic and Rehabilitation Engineering Center (OREC) at Marquette, has been working with these populations of children for more than 30 years.

“Some of the processes we use have never been definitively studied or applied to patients,” Harris said. “We want to design better devices and improved protocols that will help alert doctors, therapists, caregivers and family members of joint overload concerns. The intent is to have an impact in modifying activities and treatments in order to improve functional activities and quality of life.”

Those devices will include the development of an elliptical machine to improve neuromuscular control and stability in children. Other development projects are a novel pediatric robotic gait trainer; a biplanar (3-D) fluoroscopic imaging system that will allow researchers to see the internal motion of the bones inside the foot; and a customized orthotic (brace) based on sensor technologies to treat pediatric flat foot.

The research projects funded under the grant include:

•    Gait analysis of children with OI and severe clubfoot  deformity to determine strain on the femur and humerus in those using crutches in order to modify activities or design better devices to absorb forces (and thus prevent fractures) and to better direct surgeons so they are aware of high load areas.
•    Using MRI and fMRI imaging for children with cerebral palsy to assess if there are changes in brain activity as a result of surgery or robotic-assisted rehabilitation of the arms and legs.
•    Evaluation of home-based robot-guided therapy, combined with interactive game elements to keep children interested, and tele-assessment to determine effectiveness in maintaining mobility in children with cerebral palsy; and
•    Mobility modeling of the upper and lower extremities (armsand legs) to determine the relationship between internal joint forces, assistive devices, ankle arthroeresis (implants) and longer-term tissue level effects as they relate to pain and function.

The technology transfer inherent in the grant is one of the focal points of the Clinical and Translational Science Institute, a partnership of all the major academic institutions in the region —  Marquette, MCW, UWM and MSOE, as well as Froedtert Memorial Lutheran Hospital, Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin, Zablocki VA Medical Center and Blood Center of Wisconsin. Formed in 2008, the institute recently received a $20 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to create an infrastructure for biomedical research in the Milwaukee region.

Harris said CTSI was helpful in the grant preparation and will be involved in the grant’s extensive training and dissemination activities, including development of a website to provide information for physicians, parents and children.

“This is all about improving the quality of life for these children,” he said.

A State of the Science Conference will be held in the fourth year of the grant.

The grant of $950,000 per year for five years, totaling $4.75 million, was awarded under the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Centers Program. It provides 87.8 percent of the program costs, with 12.2 percent or $659,274 funded through non-government sources.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gCEyQ9eA4fFGeudlfvUBZt2qjWiAD9ILPBG81?docId=D9ILPBG81

Judge Orinda Evans in Atlanta sentenced Allergan to pay $375 million as part of the guilty plea for the misleading marketing of Botox, while the drug maker also agreed to fork over $225 million in civil fines.

About a month ago Allergan announced that it had reached a settlement with authorities and was goig to plead guilty of marketing Botox, the wrinkle-smoother, for uses not approved by the Food and Drug Administration, such as cerebral palsy in children, headaches and pain. These infractions took place from 2000 to 2005. Allergan also agreed to pay the $600 million fine as part of that deal.

http://cerebral-palsy-medicalmalpractice.com/blog/2010/09/drug-maker-to-pay-600-million-settlement-in-federal-probe-of-botox-for-children-with-cerebral-palsy.html

Botox is widely used to erase lines on faces, but it is also approved for use on neck spasms and underarm sweating, according to the Associated Press. Last year Botox was approved to treat spasms in the wrists, fingers and elbows, but doctors still also use it on children with cerebral palsy. 

Allergan has said that it’s working with health officials to get Botox approved for use with childen with that disorder.    

Allergan, which makes Botox, put out a press release Wednesday about the resolution of the five-year-old investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice.

http://agn.client.shareholder.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=503974

 The drug maker will plead guilty to one misdemeanor of “misbranding” from 2000 to 2005 and pay the government $375 million for that count. Allergan will also ante up $225 million in civil fines stemming from the probe, even though the drug maker denies any liability in the civil allegations. 

“This settlement is in the best interest of our stockholders as it resolves all matters at issue in the investigation, avoids substantial costs of litigation, as well as the substantial risks to Allergan associated with Government enforcement action in these matters, and permits us to focus our time and resources on productively developing new treatments for patients and the medical community,” Douglas Ingram, Allergan’s executive vice president, said in a prepared statement.

The Justice Department was investigating Irvine, Calif.-based Allergan’s marketing of Botox, a wrinkle smoother, from 2000 to 2005.  The marketing push prompted doctors to use Botox for unapproved treatments, including cerebral palsy in children, headaches, spasticity and pain, according to the Associated Press. 

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gCEyQ9eA4fFGeudlfvUBZt2qjWiAD9HV7NBG0

Drug makers are barred from marketing drugs for so-called “off-label,” or non-approved, uses.

Botox became a household name because of its success temporarily erasing facial wrinkles, but it also has approval for use for eye muscle problems, underarm sweating and spasms of the neck, elbows, wrists and fingers.

It’s also been used off-label to treat cerebral palsy in children and adults, and Allergan is talking to the federal regulators about getting formal approval for Botox to be used for children, according to AP.

The wire service also reported that this year the American Academy of Neurology gave Botox its imprimatur as an “effective and generally safe treatment” for children with cerebral palsy.      

Under the settlement, Allergan will drop a lawsuit it has pending against the Food and Drug Administration. In the suit,  the company argued that it had a First Amendment right to talk to doctors about safe uses for Botox, even off-label uses it doesn’t have approval for.        

 The criminal resolution is subject to approval by the federal court in Northern District of Georgia, and the civil settlement is contingent upon such approval.

In a case in British Columbia, Canada, Judge Ian Pitfield on Monday ruled in favor of the family of Mirella Steinebach, finding that her physician Dr. Jodi Lock O’Brien and nurse Charito Hermogenes were liable for negligence during  her March 31, 2005 birth at Surrey Memorial Hospital.

The girl, now five, has cerebral palsy, a result of oxygen deprivation to her brain. It happened when her placenta separated fomr her mother’s uterus during the birth.

http://www.ctvbc.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20100615/bc_cerebral_palsy_lawsuit_100615/20100616?hub=BritishColumbiaHome

The damages in the civil case haven’t been determined yet, but estimates are in the $730,000 range. 

In his ruling, the judge noted that Mirella was born ar 5:37 a.m.,  but oxygen to her brain was cut off sometime between 5:17 a.m. and 5:27 a.m. 

“It follows that if Mirella had been delivered at any time before 0517 hours, it would it is more likely than not that she would not have suffered hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy,” or the brain damage that led her to get cerebral palsy.    

The judge wrote that Mirella likely won’t live past 20 years old.

Her birth had several complications that the Dr. O’Brien seemed to overlook, including the fact that Mirella’s mother had gestational diabetes and low weight gain for a pregnancy.

“Dr. O’Brien owed a duty to Ms. Steinebach to consult with an obstetrician regarding the appropriate course for the management of the labour,” the judge wrote in his ruling.

New research has found that babies who are born with high acidity in their umbilical cords appear to be at a higher risk for cerebral palsy, brain damage and infant death.

 http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyle/content/healthday/639106.html

The study’s findings, out of research done at the Birmingham Women’s Hospital in England, were reported online by the journal BMJ. 

 When a baby doesn’t receive adequate oxygen during delivery, its umbilical cord blood pH declines. This condition, called hypoxia, is the most common cause of brain damage, mainly among premature and very tiny babies, according to Bloomberg Businessweek. But there had not been any direct connection established between a low pH reading in umbilical cord blood and complications like brain damage.

For this research, Dr. Gemma Malin combed through and combined the results of 51 studies regarding low-umbilical cord pH, studies that covered nearly 500,000 children. The results of the studies were similar despite the wide variety of ways they were conducted, namely that there was a consistent and strong link between pH levels and infant death, cerebral palsy and brain damage. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/booster_shots/2010/05/a-new-predictor-of-newborn-health-cord-blood-ph.html

An editorial was published along with the study in the BMJ, and it urged careful surveillance of infants that have low umbilical cord pH.  

“Malin and colleagues’ systematic review of observational data suggests that a strong association exists between low umbilical artery pH at birth and major adverse outcomes including death, hypoxic ischaemic encephalopathy (usually manifesting as neonatal seizures), potentially serious brain abnormalities identified by imaging (periventricular leucomalacia or intraventricular haemorrhage), and cerebral palsy,” the editorial said.

 “Ultimately, given the findings of this study, we should aim to reduce the number of babies born with a low cord pH, without increasing unnecessary obstetric intervention. Hopefully this can be achieved by more hands-on input to labour ward care by fully trained obstetric specialists for some time have thought that acidity of the blood was linked to potential problems with newborns, but only the new study found a definitive connection between pH levels and adverse conditions such as brain damage.”

The medical malpractice judgment was not only against the hospital but also Dr. Joan Lieser, a Springfield, N.J., obstetrician.

During a trial in Essex County, jurors heard testimony about the birth of Darius Morgan of Middlesex County, N.J. In 1998, Beth Israel was too slow to do an emergency Caesarian-section on his mother. Because of that delay, Morgan now has cerebral palsy, the family attorney had argued.

If Morgan had been born a mere eight minutes earlier, he would have been healthy, according to trial testimony. Now, he needs to be taken care the rest of his life.

Morgan’s mother had filed suit against Beth Israel in 2002, but she died in 2004. The boy was adopted by his great aunt and current legal guardian, Darlene Kim, in 2007.

Saint Barnabas Health Care System, which oversees Beth Israel, declined to comment on the judgment to The Ledger.