An intensive care doctor ordered “significantly excessive and potentially fatal” doses of pain medicine for at least 27 near-death patients in the past few years after families asked that lifesaving measures be stopped, an Ohio hospital system announced after being sued by a family alleging an improper dose of fentanyl actively hastened the death of one of those patients.
The Columbus-area Mount Carmel Health System acknowledged the doses were larger than needed to provide comfort for dying patients. That raises questions about whether there was intentional or possibly illegal use of the drugs to accelerate deaths.
The system said it has fired the doctor, reported findings of an internal investigation to authorities, and has removed 20 employees from patient care pending further investigation, including nurses who administered the medication as well as pharmacists…
The attorney who brought the lawsuit said, in that case, either layers of safeguards repeatedly failed to flag a “grossly excessive” dosage of fentanyl, or the medical professionals intended to accelerate the death of the patient, 79-year-old Janet Kavanaugh.
“On balance, it’s hard to believe the former occurred rather than the latter. … This is not just a simple situation of an error,” lawyer Gerry Leeseberg said Tuesday.
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