2 Investigators: Patient Was Flooded With Painkillers Before His Death
http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2016/01/15/2-investigators-family-blames-doctors-pharmacy-for-flooding-patient-with-addictive-painkillers/
A doctor allegedly prescribed 600 pain pills for a patient in the course of two weeks. The patient’s family says it helped enable an addiction that ended in tragedy.
CBS 2’s Pam Zekman reports.
The family has filed a lawsuit against two doctors and a pharmacy, alleging the drugs they prescribed and prescriptions they filled over five years ruined his life.
“It’s unbelievable. I mean, it just overwhelmed me, and it made me angry,” says Robert Bauer, the brother of William Bauer.
William Bauer was prescribed Hydrocodone — generic for Vicodin — for back pain and several other drugs for chronic lung problems.
His prescribing physician is Dr. Robert Raines.
“What he said was, ‘Mr. Bauer, I don’t want to offend you or make you feel bad, but your brother is a lot sicker than you think,’” Dr. Raines told Robert Bauer, he says.
Through the years William Bauer was raced to the emergency room many times for overdoses and other medical complications, and then in 2013, “he died at the kitchen table drinking a cup of coffee,” says Jacqueline Bauer-Ward, the patient’s sister.
Bauer died from multiple lung ailments, but Methadone, prescribed by Dr. Harold McGrath to wean him off other painkillers, was a contributing factor.
Bauer’s brother and sister are suing Dr. Raines, Dr. McGrath, and the hospital pharmacy that filled many of the prescriptions for enabling his addiction which they say contributed to his death.
Robert Bauer says he wants Dr. Raines to explain: “Why would you give anybody this amount of medication?”
Dr. Raines denied over-prescribing pain medication for William Bauer. He tells CBS 2 the 3,800 Vicodin and 12,300 Vicodin the Bauers concluded their brother was given in 2008 and 2009 was “out of whack” and speculated that Bauer may have forged some prescriptions in order to get more drugs.
He defends his other prescriptions for Vicodin, saying he never knowingly prescribed more than 10 a day, but conceded he knew William Bauer was taking excessive amounts of the drug. He says he tried to counsel him not to but Bauer was “addicted to controlling his pain.”
A Christ Medical Center spokeswoman said they had no information about the case but “patient safety is always our top priority.”
Karen Wolownik Albert is an addiction specialist. She never treated Bauer and has nothing to do with the lawsuit, but says proper monitoring of medication is essential.
“People look at pain killer as medicine, and they are, but in high doses they’re killing people,” she says.
If someone has a relative that seems to be addicted to these painkillers, she advises: “Don’t wait … I would talk to that person’s doctor, I would seek out specialized treatment facility like Gateway Foundation.”
Bauer’s sister says they say they are telling his story because “I do not want another person hurt or another family to suffer what we had to suffer.”
The surviving siblings have filed complaints with the Illinois Department of Professional Regulation against the two doctors and with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency. Neither agency would comment on the status of the case.
Filed under: General Problems
I thought you said people in pain didn’t abuse their meds. They’re only trying to relieve their pain and no amount should be considered excessive. I thought you said doctors who ordered large quantities of narcotics were only trying to help people who have severe medical conditions. I’m sure you think that the pharmacy involved in this case should be applauded for dispensing these drugs without question. After all, what right does a pharmacist have to question the amount of pain drugs a patient claims to need. The prescriptions were all legitimate, right? Or even if they were forged the patient was only doing what was necessary to treat his illness.
I think you need to offer your services as an expert witness to defend this doctor’s actions and also explain to the family that it’s completely reasonable to take 30 or more vicodin per day if that’s what the patient thinks is necessary and the physician writes the order. That is not abuse. It’s necessary medicine.
Keep up the good work, Steve. You are the one that those in pain look to when their right to over medicate themselves and die of an overdose is being violated.
I just spent a moment or two going through your twitter feed, and wow, what an experience. I especially liked this one:
“William Sarraf @wjsarraf Jan 13 Municipality of Murrysville, PA
aspirin is effective too. hold 1 tablet between your knees”
And now I completely understand where you’re coming from. (But I will never understand how someone who believes in vaccines does not believe in climate change.)
You complain of pain patients abusing their medications, yet you worship a sport with players who do the very same thing. I wonder, is hypocrisy more common among conservatives or liberals?
http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/pirates/2015/12/23/Pirates-prospect-Clario-Perez-suspended-for-positive-drug-test/stories/201512230202
http://espn.go.com/30for30/film?page=pittsburghdrugtrials
Saying someone is “addicted to relieving their pain” is not the same as being addicted to getting “high” from medications! This is EXACTLY the problem with media, doctors, and the government…they don’t know the difference between relief seeking and drug seeking!
To pain patients taking methadone: This drug is not like any of the others you may have taken. When I took methadone, I didn’t get the same effect that I got from, say, hydrocodone. What happens is that patients don’t feel that pain-relieving effect, so they take more. But methadone remains and builds up in your system and is not so easily removed from your body. If you’re taking methadone and it’s not strong enough for your pain, don’t take more in-between dosages. If you can, get your doctor to increase the dosage. And don’t look for the same kind of pain relief you may have experienced with other painkillers.
I’m no genius but I did have a 4.0 GPA in physics in college, when are the so called media gonna report on the suffering an hardships of the over 100,000,000 trying to live in varying stages of chronic pain. Here’s a hint, money an the dark side no matter how small gets better ratings than some poor soul at no fault of their own suffering in chronic pain with nowhere to turn for help because Drs are afraid of the DEA an no longer treat chronic pain. Your sent to assembly line pain clinics with their main goal is not help the patient but a money making business first. I’ll end by saying this doesn’t apply to all Drs an clinics just the majority. An. Painkills2, you mention even mention that you need a higher dose your dismissed.
You’re right, of course, and I shouldn’t have recommended asking a doctor for an increase in dosage. Definite red flag. I was just trying to provide an option to taking methadone more frequently than recommended, because it really doesn’t work for a lot of people. Yet, because it’s cheap, it’s being prescribed more and more frequently.