The ongoing story of the wrongful death lawsuits being filed against one medical institution and a doctor continues with yet another case. This is the 30th filing of such charges, stemming from a patient in 2017 that was treated by the aforementioned, Dr. William Husel.
Mount Carmel Health System, the medical institution being charged along with Husel, according to the alleged charges, issued lethal doses of fentanyl. This occurred, based on the filing, following an initial visit for a broken toe.
The patient named in the wrongful death charge, Danny Mollett, was then diagnosed with hypertension and diabetes. It was in December of 2017 when Mollett was admitted to the ICU under the care of Dr. Husel, for issues related to peripheral vascular disease and a gangrene infection in his toe.
Citing the lawsuit, the charges claim that, ” Mount Carmel failed to prevent massive doses of CNS drugs such as Fentanyl from being accessed by nurses utilizing the AMDS system. A properly programmed AMDS system would deny a request for an excessive dosage of Fentanyl, and the machine would not permit any trays to be opened. “
The most shocking charges according to the lawsuit allege that Dr. Husel directed that 1,000 micrograms of fentanyl be administered. Medical experts suggest the maximum dosage for Fentanyl not exceed 100 mcg. What makes this story even more frightening is that the lawsuit also states that the drug was to be given by “…IV push all at once over the period of three to five minutes.”
To record, there have been 35 patients who have died under the care of Dr. Husel between the years of 2014 to 2018. Husel was indicted earlier this month on 25 counts of murder tied to the 25 patients who allegedly received 500 mcg of fentanyl or more.
Mount Carmel, following its own internal investigation, dismissed Dr. William Husel due to concerns raised over patient care. The hospital has made a public apology and has made internal changes to restrict such access to these types of drugs. They have also retrained the entire staff in addition to paying out more than $4 million in settlements.
Husel has pleaded not guilty and speaking on his behalf, criminal defense attorney Richard Blake said that these accidents were unintentional. Perhaps, even for the sake of the victims, we all hope so.
