Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo set to testify on COVID-19 nursing home policies

(NEW YORK) — California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced the state is suing a hospital in Eureka for allegedly refusing emergency abortion care to women whose lives are in danger.

The lawsuit, filed Monday in Humboldt County Superior Court, alleges Providence St. Joseph Hospital violated multiple California laws due to its refusal to provide urgent abortion care to people experiencing obstetric emergencies.

Providence St. Joseph’s is a Catholic hospital and the primary hospital services provider in Eureka, the largest coastal city between San Francisco and Oregon in northern California.

The lawsuit names one particular patient, Anna Nusslock, who had her water break when she was 15 weeks pregnant with twins in Feb. 2024.

Nusslock, a 35-year-old healthcare professional, claimed in the lawsuit that doctors at Providence St. Joseph’s told her the only option was abortion, but they could not provide her the service, based on hospital policy.

“Without abortion care, I risked infection or hemorrhage, both of which are so dangerous to my health and my life, and increased with every minute that passed,” Nusslock said during a press conference Monday.

Nusslock said she was told by doctors that they were prohibited from offering an emergency abortion if her twins still had any signs of heart tones, despite her own life being at risk and the pregnancy no longer being viable.

“I was told I could not receive emergency abortion care while at Providence because of hospital policy,” Nusslock said.

Instead, Nusslock alleges Providence staff gave her a bucket and towels “in case something happens in the car” and told her to drive 12 miles to a small community hospital where doctors were allowed to perform the procedure.

Once at that smaller hospital, Nusslock said she was actively hemorrhaging when she was placed on an operating table and the pregnancy was aborted.

In the state’s lawsuit, Attorney General Rob Bonta argues Providence has been violating multiple California laws by refusing emergency abortion care to women in need.

California is requesting a court order to force the hospital to perform prompt emergency care including abortions.

“Pregnant patients have the same rights to health care, including emergency care, that any other patient has,” said Bonta.

Bonta claims Providence is barring doctors from providing lifesaving or life-stabilizing emergency abortion treatment even when a pregnancy is not viable and when doctors have determined that immediate abortion care is necessary to save the life of the mother.

The lawsuit alleges that Providence only allows the procedure if the mother’s life is in immediate danger of death by which time intervention can be too late.

“This policy, let’s make no mistake, is draconian,” Bonta said. “It has no place in institutions that are charged with delivering accessible and equitable healthcare.”

While Bonta argues Providence must provide the care under California law, federal law on the topic is less clear.

The Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act requires every hospital in the United States that operates an emergency department and participates in Medicare to provide life-stabilizing treatment to all patients, but in a recent case, the U.S. Supreme Court did not confirm that the act includes abortion care.

In a statement to ABC News, a spokesperson for Providence St. Joseph Hospital said, “Providence is deeply committed to the health and wellness of women and pregnant patients and provides emergency services to all who walk through our doors in accordance with state and federal law. We are heartbroken over Dr. Nusslock’s experience earlier this year.”

“This morning was the first Providence had heard of the California attorney general’s lawsuit, and we are currently reviewing the filings to understand what is being alleged. Because this case is in active litigation and due to patient confidentiality, we cannot comment on the matter,” the spokesperson added.

“As part of our pledge to delivering safe, high-quality care, we review every event that may not have met our patient needs or expectations to understand what happened and take appropriate steps to meet those needs and expectations for every patient we encounter,” the spokesperson said.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(DURHAM, N.C.) — As hospitals and health care facilities work to get back up and running after Hurricane Helene slammed into Florida’s Big Bend, affecting several states, the medical supply chain could be at risk.

Baxter International, a health care and medical technology company, announced this week that it must close its largest plant in North Carolina due to flooding and destruction caused by the hurricane.

The plant, located in North Cove, 60 miles northeast of Asheville, primarily manufactures IV fluids and peritoneal dialysis solutions, according to Baxter. It is the largest manufacturer of such solutions in the U.S., employing more than 2,500 people, the company said.

“Our hearts and thoughts are with all those affected by Hurricane Helene,” José Almeida, chair, president and CEO of Baxter, said in a statement. “The safety of our employees, their families, and the communities in which we operate remains our utmost concern, and we are committed to helping ensure a reliable supply of products to patients.”

“Remediation efforts are already underway, and we will spare no resource – human or financial – to resume production and help ensure patients and providers have the products they need,” the statement continued.

Baxter said it implemented a hurricane preparedness plan ahead of Helene, which included evacuation plans for staff and moving products to higher ground or to secure storage. However, heavy rainfall and storm surge “triggered a levee breach,” which led to flooding in the facility.

Among those impacted by the Baxter plant closing is Duke University Health System (DUHS), in Durham, North Carolina, according to William Trophi, DUHS interim president vice president of supply chain.

“[Baxter has] published their action items, and they have announced to us that they’re putting a hold on all distribution for 48 hours to understand what they have in their supply line, and then they’re going to be setting up pretty strict allocations based on prior usage to make sure that everyone is getting their fair share based on their volume and their needs,” he told ABC News.

Trophi said DUHS and Duke University have not seen major disruption to their supply chain following Helene’s landfall, but notes there may be delays in the future if the Baxter plant closure lasts for several weeks, if more plants close, and depending on how long the dockworkers’ strike on the East Coast and the Gulf Coast lasts.

“What we’re doing internally is we’re looking at conservation models, so similar with our IV solutions, we’re going to look at what can we be doing differently to treat our patients in a safe, effective manner to conserve IV solutions,” he said. “And we’ll start to look at other high, critical, sensitive items that could be impacted by this, and look at what can we be doing differently to conserve the way in which we treat our patients in a safe, effective manner.”

Paul Biddinger, chief preparedness and continuity officer for the Boston-based Mass General Brigham health care system, told ABC News that facilities typically begin stockpiling and taking inventory of supplies prior to a natural disaster. After the event has happened, health care centers will work to identify what products are affected by supply chain issues and which patients are using the products.

In the case of the Baxter plant, the products are primarily used by kidney patients, cardiac patients and urologic patients, Biddinger said, adding that hospitals and other health care facilities will typically try to conserve as much of the affected product as possible, and will also investigate any alternatives or substitutions for the product.

“If the shortage is so severe that we just can’t continue with normal usage, even with conservation, then we have to start a process of allocating across our clinical services, of course, prioritizing lifesaving care and emergency care, and then going down our list for more scheduled or more elective kinds of procedures,” Biddinger said.

Samantha Penta, an associate professor of emergency management and homeland security at the University at Albany in New York, said one really important factor to consider when understanding the implications of Hurricane Helene is just how large the affected area is.

“We’re not just talking about a couple of counties. We’re not even just talking about one state. This has affected multiple states very significantly,” she told ABC News. “One of the things that organizations, in general, including hospitals, long-term care facilities and like – really, anything in the health care sector – does, is you can rely on neighboring facilities.”

Penta said if health care facilities need to send patients to a neighboring facility because they’re running low on supplies or space, or if their facility is damaged, they typically can do so. The same holds true if one facility is running low on supplies; another facility might send them some of their reserves as part of a mutual aid agreement.

But in the case of Helene, “effectively, the people who need help, their neighbors are also being affected. So, any given hospital, the closest hospitals to them, are likely dealing with the same issues,” Penta said. “That further complicates it, because things have to come from even farther away, whether that’s working within a network or ordering from different vendors.”

Over the weekend, North Carolina became the latest state to have a public health emergency declared by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) in response to Hurricane Helene.

The HHS’s Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response deployed about 200 personnel to the state, including Health Care Situational Assessment teams to evaluate the storm’s impact on health care facilities such as hospitals, nursing homes and dialysis centers, and Disaster Medical Assistance teams to help state and local health workers provide care.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(VANCOUVER ISLAND, CANADA) — Police in Canada said they have arrested six people and taken down an organized crime group believed to have produced tens of thousands of counterfeit cannabis-laced candy bars and edibles resembling popular name-brand products.

The takedown began early this month when the Pacific Region Royal Canadian Mounted Police federal policing investigators executed search warrants at two dispensaries and five separate residences on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada, on Oct. 3, according to a statement from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police on Tuesday.

“These warrants were associated to an organized crime group allegedly involved in the production and distribution of illicit drugs, and contraband tobacco in Port Alberni and Nanaimo,” authorities said. “The dispensaries in question were Green Coast Dispensary in Port Alberni and Coastal Storm Dispensary located in Lantzville.”

Search warrants were also executed at a suspected stash site in Port Alberni, as well as a storage and production facility adjacent to Coastal Storm Dispensary, including two modular trailers where cannabis edibles were being produced, stored, and distributed, authorities said.

The list of items seized includes over 120,000 cannabis edibles with packaging resembling popular name-brand chocolate bars, potato chips, nacho chips, honey and other candies, including over 3 kilograms (6.6 pounds) of psilocybin mushrooms, 1,740 psilocybin capsules, over 400 psilocybin chocolate, candies and a multitude of other psilocybin products, 2.2 pounds of pressed cannabis resin, over 500 pounds of cannabis bud, more than 19 pounds of shatter, over 5000 cannabis vape cartridges, counterfeit cannabis-laced honey, five vehicles, two ATM machines containing cash, an estimated 164 master cases of contraband tobacco equating to 82,000 packs of cigarettes, over $400,000 in cash and a shotgun, police said.

“Although the contraband cannabis-laced candy bars and chips resembled professionally manufactured, packaged, and quality-controlled products, they were discovered to have been produced in the highly unsanitary, and heavily contaminated modular trailers,” authorities from RCMP said. “A preliminary assessment of the edibles also indicates that they had been treated with unknown amounts of THC, and likely cross-contaminated with other drugs and substances present in the trailers where they were being produced and packaged.”

Of equal concern, according to police, was the fact that the counterfeit snacks had packaging claims of possessing medicinal properties and dangerously high drug potency values, with many of the candy wrap labels claiming to be “100 times more potent than regulated cannabis products.”

“Given the highly contaminated and unsanitary conditions of the illicit drug production facility where these cannabis edibles were being produced, it is possible that the consumption of these products can lead to serious health risks,” RCMP said. “We urge members of the public to practice extreme caution if they already possess, or come across such products in the future, especially with Halloween being just around the corner.”

This investigation is ongoing and numerous drug-offence-related charges are being pursued.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.