Can a Doctor be Held Liable for a Patient's Opioid Abuse? A $17.6 Million Verdict Says A St. Louis jury awarded $17.6 1000000 in damages to a couple who had filed a medical malpractice lawsuit confronting a doctor for overprescribing opioid pain medication. The plaintiff, Brian Koon, was awarded $1.4 one thousand thousand and Michelle Koon, his estranged married woman, was awarded $1.2 million. The remaining $15 one thousand thousand was awarded as punitive amercement against the doctor who prescribed the medication and the md's employer.

Brian Koon was a mechanical maintenance worker who was employed by the city parks department, and the medical evidence presented during the trial revealed that he was prescribed 37,000 narcotic pain pills over the course of iv years (betwixt 2008 and 2012) to manage his dorsum pain. Mr. Koon's daily dosage of pain medication went from 49 milligrams per mean solar day, to upward of 1,155 milligrams per day, which far exceeds the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) recommendation of no more than 100 milligrams of opioid medication per twenty-four hours.

I accept found the firm so far to be very compassionate and agreement, something that seems to be rare in companies these days, let alone in attorneys. Chris Nace offered to help the states when no one else would. That goes a long style in my book.

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Doctors play a part in the rampant opioid addiction in the U.S.

In a study on Overdose Death Rates published by the National Institutes of Health National Found on Drug Abuse, you lot will run into displayed on the forepart page, a bar graph that tracks the number of deaths from prescription drugs and its steady increase from 2001 to 2014 which represents a 2.8-fold increase in the total number of deaths. The CDC reports that between 2000 and 2014, virtually half a meg Americans died from drug overdoses. In 2014, there were 96 opioid drug overdose deaths in Washington, D.C. Opioid overdoses (which includes both the medication and heroin), hit record levels in 2014, with a virtually 14 percent increment in i year. According to the CDC, opioid pain reliever prescriptions accept quadrupled since 1999.

In a story on WNDU.com, Dr. Palmer MacKie said that doctors play a role in propagating opioid corruption and misuse. MacKie claims "Information technology is arguably the single largest iatrogenic epidemic — the biggest medical-initiated problem that always has appeared in the Usa." Many opioid addictions start when the patient's medico prescribes opiates to manage pain. A team of researchers at the Mayo Clinic are conducting a written report to try to determine how patients develop opioid addictions. The authors of the study urge doctors to think advisedly almost whether it is appropriate to prescribe opioid pain medication, and consider if the patient has had whatever history of addiction.

Koon'due south story of developing a debilitating habit from the prescriptions that were given by his doctor is, unfortunately being repeated countless times across the state. We trust our medical professionals to do no impairment as they use their grooming and skills to help cure disease and treat injuries. When a doctor acts in an irresponsible or negligent style that results in an injury, the patient may exist able to take legal activity in the course of a medical malpractice lawsuit. An experienced, Washington, D.C. medical malpractice chaser from the law business firm of Paulson & Nace, PLLC volition consult with you when yous have been injured by medical malpractice. Please call 202-463-1999 or employ our contact form to find out more.

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