Lawsuit blames man’s suicide on St. Matthews pain clinic
http://www.wdrb.com/story/39115785/lawsuit-blames-mans-suicide-on-st-matthews-pain-clinic
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — The family of a man who committed suicide last year said he did so because a doctor at Commonwealth Pain and Spine wouldn’t sign off on a pain medication prescription that the man needed.
Brent Sloane texted his wife “they denied script im done love you” (sic) on Sept. 18, 2017. Thirty minutes later, he killed himself. According to the lawsuit filed against Commonwealth Pain and Spine in Jefferson Circuit Court on Tuesday morning, the text and suicide could have been prevented.
The suit say Slone was involved in a serious car wreck in 2011 that left him with significant injuries. After the procedure, Slone entered an inpatient recovery center in San Diego, California. While there, he was prescribed oxycodone and oxycontin.
According to the suit, while on a visit to Louisville, Slone went to the emergency room at Baptist Health for a dislocated hip and ulcer. He was prescribed a small amount of pain medication as he had run out of the prescription from the San Diego clinic and was advised to follow up with Commonwealth Pain and Spine. According to the suit, after he was discharged, he called Commonwealth Pain and Spine and requested a “bridge prescription.”
The suit says that notes from the clinic indicated that Dr. Stephen Young said he “needed to see the records from this facility in California.”
Later that day, the suit says Slone faxed the documentation to Commonwealth Pain and Spine. However, Young still refused to fill the prescription, because, according to call log notes, the documentation was from July, and there had been no communication since that time. Slone was advised that he would need to wait for six days for his appointment.
Slone killed himself a few hours later, the suit says.
“The intention of the lawsuit is bring light to that fact that people who experience pain should not be disregarded and tossed aside,” said Hans Poppe, an attorney for the family of Slone.
A lawsuit presents only one side of the arguments in the case. A message sent to an attorney for the clinic was not returned.
The suit claims Slone killed himself because he was not able to deal with the pain from various procedures and complications from the wreck in 2011.
“This is a problem that will only get worse,” Poppe said. “Mismanagement of pain medication and often leads to suicide or an addiction to heroin.“
Last summer, Kentucky lawmakers tightened restrictions on prescribing pain medication to patients. The change was hotly debated by opponents who said the changes would make it too difficult for people truly in pain to receives necessary medications.
Filed under: General Problems
So very sad. How many people are going to be forced to take the very last way out to end their continuous pain that has been documented through a primary care physician or a pain management specialist? I am so very sorry for the family but, I do understand not being able to take not even one more day of agonizing pain. I don’t believe that the doctor feared that writing a prescription to help Mr. Sloane would actually harm him (Mr. Sloane) in any way or was not the appropriate action to help but, the fear was that he ( the physician) may actually be opening himself up to be harassed by the DEA Gestapo, possibly arrested, and cause him a great deal of “legal” trouble for simply helping a man with a documented history of relentless, continuous, severe pain! This madness of EVERY pain management patient getting the blame for substance abuse which is inclusive of ALL illicit drugs AND alcohol resulting in overdose must stop. The 2016 CDC “guideline” is not only failing to slow overdose which is increasing but it is causing VERY unnecessary suffering with the “one dose fits all” maximum dosage of an opiate medication as the last therapy to manage pain from injury or disease. The CDC has declared an “opioid crisis” and in fact there are two crisis. An illicit substance abuse crisis AND under management of documented pain caused by the DEA. An enforced maximum milligrams of opiate medication per day causing our physicians to reluctantly reduce ALL their patients that have done well with their personalized dosage of medication for years and decades in excess of 90 mme in a few short weeks with patients still suffering almost 2 years now enforced by DEA speaks for itself. The CDC “misguidedline” is causing far more harm, overdose from substance abuse AND even self termination because of ZERO other resources to ,manage documented pain. Do we still live in America or not? My families’ prayers to the Sloane family and may justice be done..