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PA Gets 25 Years for Luring Girls on Snapchat; Doctor Arrested for Alleged Rapes

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

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

New York physician assistant Jonathan Weiss was sentenced to for creating a fake identity on Snapchat and enticing girls to send him nude photos. (Times Herald-Record)

Florida physician Eric Salata, MD, was arrested for allegedly while they were under anesthesia for cosmetic procedures at his practice, the Pura Vida ľֱ Spa in Naples. (FOX4)

An Iowa jury to a patient with bacterial meningitis who was misdiagnosed with the flu by a physician assistant at UnityPoint Clinic Family Medicine in Des Moines. (ABC News)

Orthopedic surgeon Thomas Raley Jr., MD, was sentenced to 3 years in prison for for writing prescriptions for compounded drugs, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ).

Utah ophthalmologist Paul Wade Wyatt, MD, who is set to stand trial in January for allegedly performing surgeries while his license was suspended, is after additional victims came forward. Wyatt allegedly performed at least seven eye surgeries in 2018, despite his license being suspended since 2016. Prosecutors charge all of those surgeries left victims with permanent or severe injuries. (KSL)

The widower of an alleged victim of orthopedic surgeon David Heekin, MD, said his wife was supposed to have a routine hip replacement surgery after a fall that would only take about an hour. Anthony Bonk said his wife, Cindy, died after 6 hours in surgery and Bonk is now Heekin and Ascension St. Vincent's in Florida. Victims allege Heekin was impaired by a progressive neurological condition that led to botched surgeries. (News4Jax)

Caitlin Bernard, MD, the Indiana doctor who helped provide an abortion to a 10-year-old rape victim from Ohio, focused on blocking Indiana's attorney general from seeking the patient's medical records. Bernard's lawsuit also alleges that statements the attorney general made about her on Fox News were defamatory. (WTHR)

The abortion opposition group Alliance Defending Freedom has asked a federal judge in Texas to of the drugs used in medication abortion, mifepristone (Mifeprex) and misoprostol (Cytotec). (AP)

Florida doctor Sean Patrick O'Rourke, MD, pleaded guilty to taking kickbacks in a scheme involving cancer genomic tests and durable medical equipment. , from September 2018 through March 2020, O'Rourke made $31,075, and Medicare paid some $2.7 million related to his false claims.

Two doctors were charged for their role in a $2.6 million , in which they saw patients via telehealth and prescribed opioids without a physical exam and without medical need, the DOJ said.

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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.