Double Hand Transplant for Burnt Chiropractor Successful
LOUISVILLE, KY.: The recipient of a rare double hand transplant says he feels “fantastic” and can wiggle fingers on both his new hands.
Richard Edwards made his first appearance on Thursday, about a week after he underwent a nearly 18-hour transplant procedure at a hospital in Louisville.The 55-year-old chiropractor from Edmond, Okla., had his hands severely burned in a fire in 2006.
Edwards was the nation’s third double hand transplant recipient. The surgery was performed at Jewish Hospital, the site of the world’s first successful hand transplant in 1999.
Doctors say Edwards’ progress is ahead of other patients because they were able to route his existing nerves into the donor hands. Edwards lost seven fingers after his accident but retained most of his original hands, though they were badly burned.
Source: Huffington Post
Illegal Search Warrant Exonerates Chiropractor on Drug Charges
BOWLING GREEN, OH–The Sixth District Court of Appeals has overturned a conviction of a local chiropractor. The Doc was originally charged with allowing drug abuse in her home.
Huntington entered the plea after a motion to suppress evidence, filed in August 2009, was denied by a Bowling Green Municipal Court. At issue was a search warrant filed and executed while the chiropractor was away from her home. The warrant was obtained when a friend who was feeding her cat gave police permission to enter the chiropractors home.
While at the home of the chiropractor “feeding the cat”, the friend found items which led him to contact the police, who then obtained a warrant. The appeals court ruled that the friend “merely had (the chiropractors) permission to enter the kitchen to feed the cats on three separate days; the cat feeders presence in appellant’s house could reasonably be expected to amount to no more than five or 10 minutes on each occasion.”
The Judge that granted the warrant presided at the chiropractor’s plea agreement.
The appeals court added that her friend was not staying in the house overnight and he was not given authority over the premises.
“We find that appellant’s home was searched illegally and that the trial court therefore erred by denying appellant’s motion to suppress,” the panel of three judges concurred.
They ruled in favor of the chiropractor’s appeal and sent the matter back to the municipal court.
Source: The Sentinel-Tribune
Chiropractor wins $6.3 Million in Judgement Against the State Board
INDEPENDENCE, MO–A chiropractor in Missouri has won a $6.3 million judgment in his case against former members of the Missouri State Board of Chiropractic Examiners for suspending his license.
The case stems from accusations that a chiropractor, who ended up leaving Missouri after the accusations, had convinced a Mennonite farmer with AIDS that he was cured and could start a family.
The patient died and left behind a wife and daughter, each with HIV infections. From the beginning, the chiropractor has denied that he ever said the patient had overcome HIV.
After the case came to light in stories published in The Kansas City Star, the chiropractic board suspended the chiropractor’s license for two years — although that suspension was set aside pending appeals that the chiropractor ultimately won in 2002. The board could have tried again to impose its penalties, but it never did, and the chiropractor’s departure from the state would have made disciplinary action moot.
But he filed suit against the former board members in 2005 to collect legal fees and losses to his business. That case went to trial last week. In a 9-3 verdict, the Cole County jury awarded damages of $6,284,759.
Attorney General Chris Koster’s office represented the board members, and a spokesman said the state planned to file a post-trial motion to have the verdict set aside. The chiropractor’s attorneys could not be reached for comment.
The case stretches back 20 years, when the patient whent to the chiropractor’s office several times beginning in 1990.
The patient was a member of a Mennonite sect from north-central Missouri, had hemophilia and contracted the AIDS virus from tainted blood products. He died in 1992.
At dispute in the case is whether the chiropractor told the patient that the treatments cured him of AIDS.
The chiropractor won his appeal in 2002 in large part because a court said he had not been given access to key pieces of evidence. One was testimony the deceased patients widow, which was given in an unrelated lawsuit involving tainted blood that caused the patients AIDS. The chiropractor argued that testimony in that case would vary from the widow’s testimony that chiropractor said the patient was cured.
The chiropractors’ suit also contended that the chiropractic board seemed to overlook a religious anointing ceremony at the patient’s church which was held in hopes of curing him, and the urging made by the minister at his wedding that the patient start a family. The chiropractor suggested those factors might have led the couple to believe patient was cured or to conceive a child even if he remained HIV-positive.
The jury’s verdict came against six former members of the chiropractor board — Lawrence Gerstein, Charlotte Hill, Mary Holyoke, Charles Klinginsmith, Larry Lovejoy and Lee Richardson. Ordinarily, members of such boards are immune from civil suits for their official duties. But there is an exception when a court finds they acted with gross negligence. Still, the state’s legal expense fund will ultimately cover any damages.
Source: The Kansas City Star