Intensive care doctor gave 27 near-death patients 'potentially fatal' meds, hospital says
An Ohio hospital says a physician ordered potentially fatal doses of pain medication for at least 27 near-death patients whose families had requested that life-saving measures be halted.
The Mount Carmel Health System said it fired the doctor and reported the findings of an internal investigation.
"On behalf of Mount Carmel and Trinity Health, our parent organization, we apologize for this tragedy, and we're truly sorry for the additional grief this may cause these families," the Columbus-based hospital said.
A lawsuit was filed this week by lawyer Gerry Leeseberg against the hospital, a pharmacist, a nurse and a physician identified as Dr. William Husel. The suit alleges they intentionally administered a lethal dose of the narcotic Fentanyl to Janet Kavanaugh, who died on December 11, 2017 at the age of 79.
The "grossly inappropriate dose was either ordered negligently and not properly reviewed, or was intentionally prescribed by Defendant Husel for the purposes of hastening the termination of Janet Kavanaugh’s life," the lawsuit says.
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The hospital said 20 hospital staff were removed from patient care duties pending further investigation, the hospital said. That includes some staff pharmacists and nurses responsible for administering the medication.
"While these actions have brought shock and hurt to our organization, this will not define us," the statement said. "Together, we will find strength in the values and beliefs we’re known for. We will learn from this and will do better, because our patients and their families deserve nothing less."
Five states – California, Oregon, Vermont, Washington and Colorado – allow the practice, and 20 have considered but not passed legislation to do so, according to the nonpartisan National Conference of State Legislatures.
A Montana court also legalized it there, though there’s no regulatory framework in place. In Ohio, the practice remains illegal. A bill that would have allowed terminally ill, mentally competent patients to self-administer a prescription to end their lives failed to gain traction in the last legislative session.
But Joe Carrese, a faculty member at the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics, said that such laws are carefully crafted. He said that if Husel administered lethal quantities of drugs to unwitting patients in order to end their lives, his acts didn’t meet the definition of physician-assisted death.
“In this case, if that was the intent, this was essentially euthanasia, which is not legal anywhere in the United States and not at all the same as physician-assisted death,” he said.
Columbus Police said their Cold Case Unit Homicide Unit has been investigating the deaths, and Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O’Brien confirmed that his office has met with doctors, hospital executives and attorneys and that an investigation is underway.
Mount Carmel operates four hospitals in the Columbus area.
Records show the State Medical Board in Ohio has never taken disciplinary action against Husel. It’s unclear whether that board ever received a complaint or conducted an investigation about him, as such records are confidential under Ohio law, and outcomes are made public only if the board takes formal action.
Leeseberg, the attorney in the Mount Carmel lawsuit, said an important difference in this case is that multiple people were involved in the patients receiving the drugs.
“The pharmacist has an obligation to question an order, and the nurse has an obligation to question the order as well,” Leeseberg said. “All of those safeguards were overridden or ignored. It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen.”
Contributing: The Associated Press
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Intensive care doctor gave 27 near-death patients 'potentially fatal' meds, hospital says
