Surgery

An Orange County woman was sentenced to eight years in prison Tuesday for recruiting people for unnecessary surgeries as part of a multi-state, $154-million medical insurance fraud scheme. Lilia Toscano, 41, pleaded guilty to 98 counts that included conspiracy, grand theft, tax evasion, insurance fraud and so-called capping, or recruiting patients for a fee, the Orange County district attorney's office said. Toscano enlisted more than 245 people, most of them from California, to take part in the bogus surgeries in exchange for money or low-cost cosmetic surgeries.

Roger Ebert, who has undergone a series of cancer surgeries, was recovering Friday after having yet another operation. The 65-year-old film critic had successful surgery Thursday in Houston to address complications from previous operations, his lawyer said in a statement. No details were provided. Ebert, a film critic at the Chicago Sun-Times for more than 40 years, has undergone a series of operations, including the removal of a growth on his salivary gland and a tracheotomy, a procedure that opens an airway through an incision in the windpipe, that left him unable to speak.

Mike Wallace is recovering from triple heart bypass surgery performed last week, CBS News said Tuesday. Wallace, 89, is already walking following the surgery Friday to bypass blockages near his heart. Doctors are calling the operation "a great success," the network said. Recovery from heart bypass surgery generally takes about six weeks. The veteran "60 Minutes" correspondent, who is essentially retired, recently interviewed Roger Clemens about allegations of steroid abuse.

Brett Favre recently underwent arthroscopic surgery to repair damage to his throwing shoulder, leaving open the possibility he could return to play quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings, according to an ESPN report Sunday citing two unnamed sources. Favre's agent, Bus Cook, did not immediately return an e-mail about the report, but declined to either confirm or deny the surgery to ESPN.com, telling the website: "That's a confidential client privilege." Although the Vikings too declined to comment on the report, it's clear that Minnesota is the only potential landing spot for Favre, should he decide to again come out of retirement.

It is hard to silence Dick Vitale, and he returns to the air tonight to broadcast the Duke-North Carolina game on ESPN after an absence of more than two months because of surgery to remove ulcers from his vocal cords. For 3 1/2 weeks, Vitale couldn't speak, instead scribbling madly on a grease board for his wife, Lorraine. "I went through so many pens, so many pads!" he said.

A transplant surgeon accused of illegally hastening the death of a prospective organ donor acted properly when he ordered sizable doses of pain and anxiety medication for the comatose man, the physician's attorney suggested in court Thursday. Gravely ill, Ruben Navarro "was going to die shortly, whether in minutes or in hours," said attorney M. Gerald Schwartzbach as he asked a question of a witness. "In that situation, you err on the side of ensuring that he's pain-free."

St. Joseph Hospital in Orange is under state investigation for mistakenly doing knee-repair surgery on a patient's good knee, the third "wrong-site" procedure to occur at Orange County's largest hospital since January 2006. The Feb. 15 operation was intended to repair a patient's left knee but was "inadvertently performed on the right knee," according to a statement released by the hospital in response to questions from The Times.

Tiger Woods, who has been out for more than five weeks after arthroscopic surgery on his left knee, did not put his name on the list to play next week's $6-million Memorial, and apparently won't return to competition until the U.S. Open, June 12-15. Woods hasn't played since finishing second at the Masters. The Memphis tournament follows the Memorial and is the week before the Open. Woods' normal routine is not to play the tournament the week before a major.

People who undergo total knee replacements often adopt a forward-bending way of going from sitting to standing, a new study has found. This motion can increase the strain on the non-injured leg and possibly set patients up for future injuries. To prevent this from happening, physical therapy after surgery -- aimed at retraining this action -- could be helpful, say the study's authors, from the University of Delaware.

On Aug. 15, 2006, Alicia Cole entered Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center for a routine surgery -- removing noncancerous growths from her uterus. Several days after the procedure, it was clear something was wrong. The actress' abdominal area was red and swollen. She had a temperature of 103 degrees. At one point, the inflamed incision site oozed a brown fluid. A hospital record dated Aug. 21, 2006, said Cole had a postoperative wound infection, according to a state report.