Obstetric Anal Sphincter Injuries (OASIS)

Posted by Dr Mike O'Connor on 15 November 2023
An OASIS injury can have a devastating effect on the life of a young mother who develops incontinence of flatus and faeces.This can happen because the sphincter transections are either not identified ; not repaired correctly or the repair subsequently breaks down. Over time ,especially during the menopause even good repairs can weaken because of progressive loss of smooth muscle and connective tissue.The External Anal Sphincter (EAS) is comprised of striated muscle and is innervated by the pu...
Posted in:Obstetrcis  

Osteonecrosis of the Jaw and Biphosphonates

Posted by Dr Mike O'Connor on 29 August 2023
Osteonecrosis of the jaw is a serious but rare complication of bisphosphonate and Prolia treatment for osteoporosis. It is diagnosed when maxillary or mandibular bone becomes exposed whilst medicated with bisphosphonates. The bisphosphonates are a group of drugs which are preferentially incorporated into sites of active bone re-modelling where they inhibit hydroxyapatite breakdown, thereby effectively suppressing bone resorption.Just how bisphosphonates cause osteonecrosis is not well underst...
Posted in:Other  

Boundary Violations by Medical Practitioners

Posted by Dr Mike O'Connor on 10 July 2023
Boundary violations occur when a doctor behaves in an unprofessional and untrustworthy manner by misusing their power in the doctor-patient relationship. This may result in harming the patient in some way. I guess many of us would have transgressed at least one such boundary such as treating family members. The following are examples of boundary violations:Examples of practitioner-patient boundary breaches include Having a personal and/or sexual relationship with a patient (even a former...
Posted in:Other  

Monstrous Mothering: Understanding The Causes Of And Responses To Infanticide

Posted by Dr Mike O'Connor on 29 May 2023
Arlie Loughnan and Mike O’Connor* The deliberate killing of a child by its mother is abhorrent and is associated in the minds of many with mental illness and in particular with postnatal depression. However, at least 50% of perpetrators are neither “mad” nor “bad”, and mothers who kill children are not “unhinged” by pregnancy or childbirth. We propose a different explanation: “blind rage” or “overwhelmed syndrome”, whereby par...
Posted in:MedicolegalInfanticide  

Infanticide in Australia and the US

Posted by Dr Mike O'Connor on 22 March 2023
I was recently in Orlando Florida for the 63rd Annual Conference of the American College of Legal Medicine. The Australasian CLM has recently established strong links with the American counterpart and my invitation to talk was based on that nexus. I talked about Infanticide laws in Australia which is something that American jurisdictions lack and hence many women are convicted of first degree murder for killing an infant. Four States in the US (Montana ,Utah, Kansas, and Idaho ) have no pro...
Posted in:Medicolegal  
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