By PETE YOST Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) _ Actor Dennis Quaid told Congress on Wednesday that taking away the right to sue pharmaceutical companies would turn consumers into ”uninformed and uncompensated lab rats.”
Quaid’s comments came as he described a harrowing, near-fatal drug mix-up in which his newborn twins received 1,000 times the correct dose of [...]

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NEW YORK (AP) _ A hospital did nothing wrong when it tried to examine the rectum of a construction worker who had been hit on the head by a falling wooden beam, a jury found Monday.
After deliberating for about an hour, a state Supreme Court jury awarded nothing to Brian Persaud, who sued NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital [...]

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SANTA MARIA, Calif. (AP) _ A judge has dropped Michael Jackson from a lawsuit filed by the family of a woman who died at a hospital soon after she was moved to make room for the pop star.
Judge Rodney Melville on Tuesday dropped Jackson from the lawsuit against Marian Medical Center in response to a [...]

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LOS ANGELES (AP) _ California first lady Maria Shriver is among more than 30 celebrities and other high-profile patients who had their confidential records breached at UCLA Medical Center, medical officials said.
The woman responsible, whose name was not released, is the same employee who sneaked into actress Farrah Fawcett’s medical records, officials told the Los [...]

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By WILLIAM McCALL Associated Press Writer
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) _ First New York, then Oregon, and now Australia. Dr. Jayant Patel is accused of leaving a bloody trail of mistakes as a surgeon, now resulting in manslaughter charges.
His arrest at his Portland home Tuesday morning started the legal clock ticking on an extradition request by Australia, [...]

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EVERETT, Wash. (AP) _ A Superior Court jury awarded $40.1 million to a man whose heart was damaged so badly by a malfunctioning machine during an operation that he had to undergo a heart transplant.
Paramjit Singh, 54, of Mount Vernon, also suffers other problems as a result of the injury and anti-rejection drugs he must [...]

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WASHINGTON (AP) _ A divided Supreme Court is leaving intact a ruling favoring people who sued a pharmaceutical company, saying they had been harmed by a drug to combat diabetes.
The dispute stems from several suits against Warner-Lambert over its diabetes drug Rezulin. Warner-Lambert is now owned by Pfizer. The Supreme Court split 4-4 in the [...]

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By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN Associated Press Writer
NEW ORLEANS (AP) _ More than 44,000 people have signed up for shares of a $4.85 billion settlement over the withdrawn painkiller Vioxx, a sign that the deal is on track to go forward, Merck & Co. announced Monday.
Of roughly 47,000 people who registered for the settlement earlier this year, [...]

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By LINDA DEUTSCH AP Special Correspondent
GLENDALE, Calif. (AP) _ The jury in the John Ritter wrongful-death trial heard testimonials Tuesday from his TV co-star, agent, personal assistant and son, who praised the actor as a kind, loving and funny man facing a bright future at the time of his death.
”I loved John,” actress Katey Sagal [...]

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NEW YORK (AP) _ A construction worker claimed in a lawsuit claiming that when he went to a hospital after being hit on the forehead by a falling wooden beam, emergency room staffers forcibly gave him a rectal examination.
Brian Persaud, 38, says in court papers that after he denied a request by NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital emergency [...]

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