The former Oklahoma chief medical examiner says he plans to file a whistleblower lawsuit over claims he was fired from his job for reporting gross errors in the state grand jury investigation that brought criminal charges against the man he replaced nine months ago. Dr. Collie M. Trant said he was not made aware at all that his job was in jeopardy and wants his job and reputation back. According to the lawsuit, Trant said that the chief administrative officer for the medical examinerâ??s office, Tom Jordan, had “set me up to fail.”

Republican lawmakers have proposed a bill that would force plaintiffs who lose medical malpractice lawsuits to pay legal costs for both sides. The bill, introduced by Sens. Saxby Chambliss of Georgia and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina also calls for an arbitration provision for medical malpractice cases. Opponents of the measure have called it unnecessary and dangerous.

The Food and Drug Administration approved a controversial knee-surgery device after receiving pressure from lawmakers and lobbyists, the Washington Post reports. According to a report released last week by the FDA, regulators seem to have buckled under political pressure from four New Jersey lawmakers with financial ties to ReGen Biologics. The report noted that FDA staff had previously opposed approval of the device.

A new study published in the journal Circulation reveals an up to 36 percent reduction in heart attacks after smoking bans were enacted. Researchers studied the rate of heart attacks in US, Canadian and European cities immediately after smoking bans became effective and noted a 17 percent reduction the first year of the ban, followed by the 36 percent reduction after three years. They used the data to call for increased bans on public smoking to reduce the affects of secondhand smoke which lead to heart attacks, and noted that the bans should result in reduced health care costs as well.

Two personal injury bills were signed into law by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The first, known as the “Good Samaritan” bill, provides liability protection for those who stop and render aid at the scene of an accident, and was passed in response to the California Supreme Court’s earlier ruling that liability only extended to trained responders. Assembly Bill 470 also became law, allowing lawyers to receive their clients’ records directly from insurance companies, changing prior legislation that only permitted companies to provide records to the injured person.

A jury on Monday sided with a Florida hospital accused of wrongly repatriating a severely brain-injured illegal immigrant who had been a patient since 2000.  In the verdict, jurors concluded that Martin Memorial Medical Center’s actions had not been unreasonable or unwarranted under the circumstances. In 2003, acting on an order from a state court judge, and disregarding objections by a legal guardian, the hospital chartered a plane to return Luis Alberto Jiménez to his native Guatamala. The lawsuit sought damages to cover Jiménez’s continued care in Guatamala.

Treasury Department officials last week promised to push forward with plans to create a new consumer finance regulatory agency despite shouts from the financial services industry decrying the plan. Plans for the proposed agency were detailed in a draft bill sent to lawmakers last week. Consumer groups supporting the bill hope the new agency will serve as safety commission for financial products and help curb runaway lending the ended in the current wave of foreclosures.

The Senate has approved legislation that will allow the Food and Drug Administration to provide first-of-its-kind regulation of the tobacco industry, the New York Times reports. Under the law, expected to be signed by President Obama, the FDA would be able to control the levels of nicotine and other chemicals in tobacco products in addition to restricting marketing. Supporters of the law estimate that new regulation will reduce the amount of toxins in cigarette smoke and reduce youth and adult smoking.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg put a temporary halt Monday to the planned sale of Chrysler LLC to Italian automaker Fiat. Groups including three Indiana pension funds had asked the Supreme Court to block the sale arguing that it would cause irreparable harm to fund shareholders. The one-sentence order temporarily stopping the sale leaves open the option that the court may allow the deal to go forward in the next several days.

The nation’s food safety chief told lawmakers on Wednesday the Food and Drug Administration would endorse a Democrat-sponsored bill to revamp the country’s food inspection system but her agency would still require additional funding to implement the measure. Appearing before the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health, Margaret A. Hamburg said she believed the proposed overhaul was a step in the right direction. A committee vote on the measure is expected as early as next week.