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U.S. NEWS Wednesday 16 January 2019

Hospital: Doc gave near-death patients excessive pain meds

By KANTELE FRANKO from happening," Mount
Associated Press Carmel President and CEO
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ed Lamb said in a video
An intensive care doctor statement . "We're doing
ordered "significantly ex- everything to understand
cessive and potentially fa- how this happened and
tal" doses of pain medicine what we need to do to en-
for at least 27 near-death sure that it never happens
patients in the past few again."
years after families asked The attorney who brought
that lifesaving measures be the lawsuit said, in that
stopped, an Ohio hospital case, either layers of safe-
system announced after guards repeatedly failed
being sued by a family al- to flag a "grossly exces-
leging an improper dose of sive" dosage of fentanyl,
fentanyl actively hastened or the medical profession-
the death of one of those als intended to accelerate
patients. the death of the patient,
The Columbus-area Mount 79-year-old Janet Kavana-
Carmel Health System ac- ugh.
knowledged the doses "On balance, it's hard to
were larger than needed to believe the former oc-
provide comfort for dying curred rather than the lat- The main entrance to Mount Carmel West Hospital is shown Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2019.
patients. That raises ques- ter. ... This is not just a simple Associated Press
tions about whether there situation of an error," lawyer
was intentional or possibly Gerry Leeseberg said Tues- tisan National Conference Franklin County Prosecutor Husel was a supervised
illegal use of the drugs to day. of State Legislatures. In Ron O'Brien confirmed that resident at the Cleveland
accelerate deaths. The lawsuit was filed Mon- Ohio, the practice remains his office has met with doc- Clinic from 2008 to 2013,
The system said it has fired day in Franklin County illegal. A bill that would tors, hospital executives according to a statement
the doctor, reported find- against the health system, have allowed terminally ill, and attorneys and that an from the medical center.
ings of an internal investi- a pharmacist, a nurse and mentally competent pa- investigation is underway, It's now conducting an in-
gation to authorities and the doctor, whom it identi- tients to self-administer a but he wouldn't discuss vestigation of his work.
removed 20 employees fies as William Husel. prescription to end their details. He said they've re- Carrese, from the bioeth-
from patient care pend- Case records listed no at- lives failed to gain traction ceived cooperation from ics institute, commended
ing further investigation, in- torney yet to comment on in the last legislative session. Mount Carmel, which oper- Mount Carmel for encour-
cluding nurses who admin- Husel's behalf. There is no But Joe Carrese, a faculty ates four hospitals around aging a culture in which
istered the medication as public personal phone list- member at the Johns Hop- Columbus, and from parent medical staff and other
well as pharmacists. ing for him, and other num- kins Berman Institute of Bio- organization Trinity Health, employees can come for-
Mount Carmel said the bers linked to him weren't ethics, said that such laws one of the country's larg- ward without fear, but he
situation came to light be- accepting calls Tuesday. are carefully crafted. He est Roman Catholic health said the extent of the alle-
cause an employee re- Husel's case emerges amid said that if Husel adminis- care systems. gations is concerning.
ported a safety concern. a national debate over tered lethal quantities of Records show the State "The fact that there may be
The health system shared physician-assisted death. drugs to unwitting patients Medical Board in Ohio has other patients, up to 26 oth-
no information about what In such cases, physicians in order to end their lives, his never taken disciplinary er patients, really calls into
might have prompted em- prescribe medications in acts didn't meet the defini- action against Husel. It's un- question whether the cul-
ployees to approve and life-ending amounts to ter- tion of physician-assisted clear whether that board ture of safety and reporting
administer the excessive minally ill patients. death. ever received a complaint that they're shooting for,
dosages. Six states — California, Ore- "In this case, if that was the or conducted an investi- whether there's more work
"Regardless of the reason gon, Vermont, Washington, intent, this was essentially gation about him, as such that needs to be done," he
the actions were taken, we Colorado and Montana — euthanasia, which is not le- records are confidential said.
take responsibility for the allow the practice, and 20 gal anywhere in the United under Ohio law, and out- The allegations carry
fact that the processes in have considered but not States and not at all the comes are made public echoes of prior Ohio cas-
place were not sufficient passed legislation to do so, same as physician-assisted only if the board takes for- es in which patients were
to prevent these actions according to the nonpar- death," he said. mal action. killed.q