Latest news with #Rappaport
22-05-2025
- Health
'Wrong organ was removed': Surgeon faces lawsuit over alleged kidney removal error
A Minnesota woman in her 80s is now living with stage 5 kidney disease after a surgeon allegedly removed her kidney during what was supposed to be a routine spleen removal procedure, according to a recently filed lawsuit. Wendy Rappaport of Plymouth, Minnesota, went to Abbott Northwestern Hospital in March 2022 for treatment of a spleen condition. However, the surgery took an unexpected turn when the surgeon removed her left kidney instead of her spleen, the court documents filed on May 16 claimed. "The wrong organ was removed," Rappaport's attorney Aaron Lawrence told ABC News. "This never should have happened. We hope that Allina takes responsibility for this negligence instead of blaming the victim," he said, referring to the Minneapolis-based Allina Health System, of which Abbott Northwestern is a part. According to the lawsuit, Rappaport was admitted to the hospital on March 24, 2022, for concerns about a possible spleen abscess or rupture. After undergoing initial tests and consulting with doctors, she was scheduled for spleen removal surgery on March 28, 2022. The lawsuit alleged that Dr. Devon Callahan performed the surgery and instead of removing the spleen, the surgeon removed Rappaport's healthy left kidney. The legal documents also claimed that the doctor's post-operative note indicated he had removed an intact spleen. ABC News reached out to Callahan for comment but has not yet received a response. The lawsuit stated that Rappaport remained hospitalized for nearly two months until May 25, 2022. Rappaport's post-procedure diagnoses included "splenic abscess, left nephrectomy (left kidney removal), respiratory failure, left pleural effusion, and diastolic heart failure," the court documents stated. She has since been diagnosed with stage 5 chronic kidney disease, for which she now requires regular dialysis treatment, according to the court documents. Chronic kidney disease is diagnosed in stages, 1-5. Stage 5 is one of the most advanced stages, at which point the kidneys are close to failure or have completely failed, according to the Cleveland Clinic. After this point, those affected may require dialysis or kidney transplant -- at which point they would enter what is termed "end stage" kidney disease. Rappaport is suing Callahan and Allina Health for the alleged medical mistake. "While we will not discuss details of a patient's care due to privacy laws, the court filings don't accurately reflect the full picture of the patient's condition, or the life-saving medical care provided," Allina Health said in a statement to ABC News. "We intend to vigorously defend, in court, the care that was provided." The lawsuit seeks monetary damages exceeding $50,000 -- though Rappaport's legal team noted that this figure is just a procedural requirement under Minnesota law, and the actual amount sought will be higher. "We are seeking fair compensation that exceeds $50,000," Lawrence explained, clarifying that Minnesota court rules prevent them from specifying the exact amount in their initial complaint.
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
'Wrong organ was removed': Surgeon faces lawsuit over alleged kidney removal error
A Minnesota woman in her 80s is now living with stage 5 kidney disease after a surgeon allegedly removed her kidney during what was supposed to be a routine spleen removal procedure, according to a recently filed lawsuit. Wendy Rappaport of Plymouth, Minnesota, went to Abbott Northwestern Hospital in March 2022 for treatment of a spleen condition. However, the surgery took an unexpected turn when the surgeon removed her left kidney instead of her spleen, the court documents filed on May 16 claimed. "The wrong organ was removed," Rappaport's attorney Aaron Lawrence told ABC News. "This never should have happened. We hope that Allina takes responsibility for this negligence instead of blaming the victim," he said, referring to the Minneapolis-based Allina Health System, of which Abbott Northwestern is a part. According to the lawsuit, Rappaport was admitted to the hospital on March 24, 2022, for concerns about a possible spleen abscess or rupture. After undergoing initial tests and consulting with doctors, she was scheduled for spleen removal surgery on March 28, 2022. The lawsuit alleged that Dr. Devon Callahan performed the surgery and instead of removing the spleen, the surgeon removed Rappaport's healthy left kidney. The legal documents also claimed that the doctor's post-operative note indicated he had removed an intact spleen. ABC News reached out to Callahan for comment but has not yet received a response. MORE: Military use of AI technology needs urgent regulation, UN warns The lawsuit stated that Rappaport remained hospitalized for nearly two months until May 25, 2022. Rappaport's post-procedure diagnoses included "splenic abscess, left nephrectomy (left kidney removal), respiratory failure, left pleural effusion, and diastolic heart failure," the court documents stated. She has since been diagnosed with stage 5 chronic kidney disease, for which she now requires regular dialysis treatment, according to the court documents. Chronic kidney disease is diagnosed in stages, 1-5. Stage 5 is one of the most advanced stages, at which point the kidneys are close to failure or have completely failed, according to the Cleveland Clinic. After this point, those affected may require dialysis or kidney transplant -- at which point they would enter what is termed "end stage" kidney disease. Rappaport is suing Callahan and Allina Health for the alleged medical mistake. "While we will not discuss details of a patient's care due to privacy laws, the court filings don't accurately reflect the full picture of the patient's condition, or the life-saving medical care provided," Allina Health said in a statement to ABC News. "We intend to vigorously defend, in court, the care that was provided." MORE: Biden's cancer diagnosis may change conversation about his mental acuity: ANALYSIS The lawsuit seeks monetary damages exceeding $50,000 -- though Rappaport's legal team noted that this figure is just a procedural requirement under Minnesota law, and the actual amount sought will be higher. "We are seeking fair compensation that exceeds $50,000," Lawrence explained, clarifying that Minnesota court rules prevent them from specifying the exact amount in their initial complaint. 'Wrong organ was removed': Surgeon faces lawsuit over alleged kidney removal error originally appeared on
Winnipeg Free Press
14-05-2025
- Business
- Winnipeg Free Press
City seeks policy ideas to promote affordable housing
The City of Winnipeg will explore more ways to attract affordable housing, such as adding new tax breaks or altering building rules. A new request for proposal seeks a contractor to suggest policy changes and incentives, with a final proposal tailored to Winnipeg's unique needs and budget. 'We're in an affordable crisis right now and we need more housing to support our growing and changing population, so we're interested in exploring all the tools available to us as a city to address that need,' said Lissie Rappaport, manager of the city's Housing Accelerator Fund office. MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS FILES The City of Winnipeg is trying to expand and incentivize affordable housing, as per a new request for proposals. The RFP calls for the winning bidder to examine best practices for affordable housing. It suggests that could include zoning entitlements, which let property owners deviate from certain zoning requirements when they produce affordable housing, fast-tracking the development process, waiving some development fees and/or creating new grants. Rappaport said zoning entitlements would be part of a program, not considered on a case-by-case basis. The contract is meant to help the city develop a housing strategy and action plan, which is part of an ongoing agreement to secure $122 million from the federal Housing Accelerator Fund by the end of 2026. Any new incentives would add to changes the city has already implemented to attract affordable housing, which include reduced minimum parking requirements, density bonuses and a series of tax-increment financing grants (that waive property taxes for a set period.) The city now allows a minimum of just 0.15 parking spaces per affordable housing unit built, instead of the standard 1.5 parking stalls per housing unit. 'That … saves developers money and also aligns with affordable housing,' said Rappaport. A density bonus pilot project that began in 2023 allowed developers to construct projects with more housing units than the standard maximum number, as long as 50 per cent of all extra units had affordable rents for at least 20 years. The city also devoted $54 million to capital grants for new housing projects in 2024 and 2025 through its share of the federal Housing Accelerator Fund. Rappaport said the contractor will review the city's current efforts to attract more affordable housing in addition to recommending new options. 'There is a lot the city can do to incentivize affordable housing, some of which doesn't even cost us anything,' she said. Coun. Sherri Rollins, a former chairwoman of the property and development committee, said the city should continue to seek more ways to attract affordable home construction. 'There is still a great pressure to produce housing units … The city can't afford to wait for other governments … we need to be producing housing units ourselves,' said Rollins (Fort Rouge-East Fort Garry). The councillor said the city can struggle to attract development at times because some civic planning positions are 'chronically understaffed.' She also cautioned against letting 'one size fits all' density rules supersede some of the city's previous zoning rules. For example, Rollins said an Osborne Village secondary plan allows for more units per lot in some areas than the four-per-lot the city must implement to support its federal funding agreement. 'I have a mixed review of some of the tools that we put in the toolbox,' she said. The city has started holding public consultations the major zoning change that would allow up to four residential units per lot in most residential areas, which council will vote on in June. Winnipeg Jets Game Days On Winnipeg Jets game days, hockey writers Mike McIntyre and Ken Wiebe send news, notes and quotes from the morning skate, as well as injury updates and lineup decisions. Arrives a few hours prior to puck drop. City council previously approved new rules aimed at attracting more affordable home projects near malls and transportation corridors. The city's definition of affordable housing includes homes that cost no more than 30 per cent of the household before-tax income, or rents of less than 80 per cent of the median market rate, according to the RFP. The RFP sets a deadline to complete the contract by the end of this year. The city will pay up to $150,000 for the work. X: @joyanne_pursaga Joyanne PursagaReporter Joyanne is city hall reporter for the Winnipeg Free Press. A reporter since 2004, she began covering politics exclusively in 2012, writing on city hall and the Manitoba Legislature for the Winnipeg Sun before joining the Free Press in early 2020. Read more about Joyanne. Every piece of reporting Joyanne produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press's tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press's history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates. Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
Forbes
24-03-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Google's $32 Billion Wiz Purchase: Strategic Imperative Or Overreach?
Google's $32 Billion Acquisition of Wiz Aims to Strengthen Its Cloud Security Portfolio and ... More Competitive Position On March 19, 2025, Google formally announced its intent to acquire cloud security firm Wiz for a staggering $32 billion in cash. The announcement made headlines not only for its size but for the extraordinary revenue multiple attached. Wiz's annual recurring revenue at the time of acquisition was reported between $700 million and $800 million, with projections to surpass $1 billion by year-end. That equates to a revenue multiple between 45x and 65x — placing the deal among the highest-priced cybersecurity acquisitions in history. Founded in 2020, Wiz specializes in Cloud-Native Application Protection, offering agentless, real-time visibility and control over vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, and access permissions across public cloud environments. In five short years, the company scaled at an unprecedented pace — achieving $100 million ARR in 18 months and reaching a $12 billion private valuation by 2024. Wiz's platform is now deployed by over half of Fortune 100 companies, as well as governments and startups. Its competitive edge lies in the simplicity and breadth of its platform — securing workloads across all major clouds (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud) without friction. From a financial perspective, the 50x multiple seems difficult to justify. However, Google's potential strategic motivations reveal the broader rationale behind this bold move: One of the unanswered questions surrounding the deal is whether Wiz will retain its operational independence post-acquisition. While Google's announcement stated Wiz will continue operating independently until regulatory approvals are finalized, it is expected that Wiz will be folded into Google Cloud thereafter. There is no defined leadership role for CEO Assaf Rappaport within Google beyond the transition period, which could raise concerns about product focus and leadership continuity. Mind you, this is Rappaport's second blockbuster exit — he previously sold Adallom to Microsoft in 2015, a transaction that significantly bolstered Microsoft's cloud security capabilities. Moreover, while Google asserts that Wiz's solutions will remain cloud-agnostic, it is unclear how competitors such as Microsoft and AWS will respond — or if they will continue supporting Wiz on their platforms. Their willingness to support a solution that enhances Google's market position is highly in doubt. Ultimately, whether this deal delivers long-term value will be determined by Google's execution and ability to integrate Wiz into GCP. On paper, the revenue multiple is very steep. But if Wiz enables Google Cloud to win more enterprise customers, enhance security trust, and close the competitive gap with Microsoft and AWS, the acquisition may be seen in hindsight as a bold but necessary move. In today's cybersecurity and cloud landscape, value is not always found on the balance sheet — it is often measured in strategic positioning and long-term market control. Time will tell whether Google's $32 billion bet will pay off.
Yahoo
20-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Wiz Snubbed Google Then Said ‘Yes' to an Extra $9 Billion
(Bloomberg) -- Last summer, investors persuaded the founders of cyber startup Wiz to turn down Google's $23 billion takeover offer. They feared the US government would block the deal and argued that Wiz was better off as an independent company. Despite Cost-Cutting Moves, Trump Plans to Remake DC in His Style Amtrak CEO Departs Amid Threats of a Transit Funding Pullback New York Subway Ditches MetroCard After 32 Years for Tap-And-Go NYC Plans for Flood Protection Without Federal Funds The Scary Thing About the Wildfire That Was Stopped On Tuesday, Wiz's founders said they'd changed their minds. It didn't hurt that Google parent Alphabet Inc. sweetened the offer to $32 billion in cash — a handsome price for a company that set up shop in Tel Aviv just five years ago. The companies, which expect the deal to close next year, are betting on a friendlier regulatory environment under President Donald Trump — although hurdles remain. Wiz will be folded into Google Cloud and could help the search giant gain market share in the fiercely contested cloud security industry. The deal came together quickly, with the first meeting held in New York a week and a half ago, according to a person familiar with the matter. The terms built on the foundation established last summer. Wiz debated whether to accept the Google proposal or move forward with a planned funding round this year for about $1 billion, at a roughly $25 billion valuation. But the startup opted to proceed owing to the bigger offer, the change in the regulatory landscape under Trump and an opportunity to accelerate efforts to build the world's largest cybersecurity company, the person said. Microsoft Corp. is currently the biggest. Founded by four Israeli military veterans, including Chief Executive Officer Assaf Rappaport, Wiz emerged just as the Covid-19 pandemic prompted more companies to move their networks to the cloud. Wiz helped pioneer new ways to find, prioritize and fix threats and bugs — outflanking traditional players that often struggled to adapt to a more complex computing environment. Wiz's rapid growth has made its four co-founders the newest members of the small Israeli billionaires club. Each owns 9.3% of the company, according to a person familiar with its structure, who requested anonymity because the information is private. Based on the sale price, that means each founder has a stake worth almost $3 billion. An additional $1 billion for retention bonuses is available to Wiz employees if they remain at Google, a person familiar with the deal said without specifying the time period. Rappaport has previously shrugged off questions about financial rewards, noting last fall that he has rented the same Tel Aviv apartment for more than a decade. Behind his unassuming demeanor and his T-shirt-khakis-and-sneakers wardrobe, Rappaport is a shrewd dealmaker with sometimes sharp elbows, according to people who know him. 'He can be extremely charming and personal and warm,' says Gili Raanan, founder of the Israeli venture capital firm Cyberstarts and one of Wiz's first investors. 'And he can be very decisive, data-driven, analytical, merciless. Those two sides exist.' The founders — Rappaport, Yinon Costica, Ami Luttwak and Roy Reznik – met at Talpiot, an elite military academy. Besides exposing recruits to different parts of the armed forces, Talpiot trains them in science, math and computers. Rappaport said he drove a tank, parachuted from a plane, received intelligence training and 'blew up things.' The four friends moved from Talpiot to Unit 8200, Israel's equivalent of America's National Security Agency. Aside from their reputation for technical prowess, Unit 8200 alumni are known for starting successful cybersecurity companies, including Palo Alto Networks, Check Point Software Technologies and Armis. In 2012, the quartet started a company called Adallom, an abbreviation of a Hebrew saying that means 'up to here' or 'last line of defense.' The startup helped companies secure cloud-based applications used by employees — a blind spot at the time, said Neil MacDonald, a vice president and analyst at Gartner, a technology research and consulting firm. 'Organizations had no visibility. None,' he said. 'Adallom helped at that time to solve that problem.' Three years after Adallom's founding, Microsoft acquired the startup for $320 million, and the founders joined the tech giant to help build its cloud security business. Rappaport said they initially planned to stay two years. They ended up staying five — creating cybersecurity products at massive scale and enjoying access to funding and talent — before leaving to start a new company. At first the team, by then working from a two-room office in Tel Aviv, considered creating a network security company called Beyond Networks. Then they interviewed more than 100 potential customers and cybersecurity professionals and learned that there was an unmet need in cloud security. Yes, there were existing tools, but they created too much work and didn't really solve the challenges. Focusing on cloud security was risky because many companies were doing similar things, and Rappaport has recalled calling the switch the 'suicide plan.' The newly created Wiz targeted a different, and broader, segment of the cloud security market than Adallom, offering a tool that worked on various platforms and could identify and prioritize risks across increasingly complex computing environments. 'Every service has configurations. Every service has identities and permissions,' MacDonald said. 'There's just this enormous complexity in the configuration of cloud infrastructure that, without a tool, a human can't understand.' Wiz's product was easy to install and could find potential problems and prioritize them in a matter of hours — providing cybersecurity professionals with unprecedented visibility, MacDonald said. The pandemic-fueled migration to the cloud fueled Wiz's growth. The young company also benefited from an all-star lineup of financial backers, including Sequoia Capital, Insight Partners, Index Ventures and Cyberstarts, some of which had also invested in Adallom. In all, Wiz has raised more than $1.9 billion dollars from investors including SoftBank Vision Fund, Andreessen Horowitz, Blackstone Group, LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault and former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz. 'Wiz felt like the first opportunity to build a security platform in a really long time, basically since CrowdStrike,' Thrive Capital's Philip Clark said in an interview last fall, referring to cybersecurity giant CrowdStrike Holdings Inc. Like several other investors, Clark also said the complementary talents of Wiz's four founders was a key to the company's success. When Google expressed interest in Wiz last year, Rappaport saw its culture as a good fit and grew increasingly exhilarated in July as they hashed out what the collaboration could look like. Google ramped up its charm offensive too, even drawing up a tongue-in-cheek employment contract for his beloved dog, Mika. Still, on the day Wiz had set as a deadline, Rappaport pulled the plug at 4 a.m., emailing the news to his anxious employees, many of whom had remained in the Tel Aviv office overnight. In an interview last fall, he recalled thinking: 'I can't believe I'm going to say no to a $23 billion acquisition.' But at the time, he didn't want to give up a 'once-in-life opportunity to be the largest cyber company in the world.' In January, Wiz hired a chief financial officer, following years of speculation about when it, and a host of other cyber startups, would go public. Rappaport continued to say he wasn't in a hurry. Companies such as OpenAI and Databricks have shown there's a 'huge advantage' to staying private longer, he said at the time, adding: 'I'm here for the long journey.' That part of the journey, at least, ended on Tuesday. --With assistance from Tom Maloney and Katie Roof. (Updated with deal details, starting in fifth paragraph.) Tesla's Gamble on MAGA Customers Won't Work How TD Became America's Most Convenient Bank for Money Launderers The Real Reason Trump Is Pushing 'Buy American' A New 'China Shock' Is Destroying Jobs Around the World The Future of Higher Ed Is in Austin ©2025 Bloomberg L.P. Sign in to access your portfolio
