|
Florida MD Found Guilty of Manslaughter for
Prescribing Pain Medication
A story reported in the March 11, 2002 issue of the American Medical
News is shaking the Medical profession
to its core. The story reported that last month, James F. Graves, MD, a
Pace, Fla., pain management specialist, became the first doctor found
guilty by a jury of manslaughter in connection with prescribing the
pain killer OxyContin. B. Eliot Cole, MD, continuing medical
education director at the American Academy of Pain Management, responded
to the case by saying, "Every one of these headlines probably makes
10,000 doctors wish they had gone to law school."
Florida prosecutors charged that Dr. Graves recklessly wrote
prescriptions to anyone willing to pay for an office visit without asking
the proper pre-prescribing questions. That, they argued, led to several
deaths. Dr. Graves responded that he was following medical protocols
and legitimately prescribed OxyContin and other pain medication to
patients he saw in his office. He claimed that if the patients would
have taken the medications as prescribed, they would not have died.
The jury sided with the prosecution's version of the facts and found
Dr. Graves guilty of four counts of manslaughter, one count of
racketeering and five counts of unlawful delivery of a controlled
substance. Dr. Graves faces up to 30 years in prison.
Ira Byock, MD, director of Palliative Care Service in Missoula, Montana
responded, "It's truly scary," he further added, "The fact
that a physician was convicted on a criminal charge of manslaughter is
indeed likely to have an effect on how physicians treat patients with
chronic pain. Physicians won't know all the details of the case, they will
know a physician was at legal risk for criminal charges."
Presently, at least two more cases like Dr. Graves are on court
dockets. One such case is in California where a physician faces
manslaughter charges for painkiller prescriptions he wrote, including
OxyContin. The other case is in Florida where a physician is facing
murder charges, an even more serious charge than manslaughter.
The article concluded with a quote from Aaron Gilson, PhD, assistant
director and researcher for policy study at the Pain and Policy Studies
Group, University of Wisconsin, Madison, "The pendulum swings, but
the ramifications are more profound this time because pain management
wasn't as much a part of the national health care forum before the 1990s.
... More patients will be affected."
|