Hi, it’s Patrik Hutzel from INTENSIVECAREHOTLINE.COM where we instantly improve the lives for Families of critically ill Patients in Intensive Care, so that you can make informed decisions, have PEACE OF MIND, real power, real control and so that you can influence decision
making fast, even if you’re not a doctor or a nurse in Intensive Care!
In the last BLOG I shared
Quick Tip For Families In ICU: When To Attend Family Meetings In Intensive Care And How To Prepare?
You can check out last week’s BLOG by clicking on the link here.
In this week’s blog I want to talk about
Murder by Opioid: The Case of the Ohio Doctor Charged With 25 Counts of Murder in ICU
In today’s blog I want to give a word of warning to families in Intensive Care!
Your and other families’ biggest challenge is simply that you don’t know what you don’t know when your loved one is critically ill in Intensive Care!
It’s like stepping into the matrix. What you see is actually not what you get! There is a different world behind the curtains on the other side and I can help you to get the key to that matrix!
It’s the elusive obvious!
First off I do want to acknowledge that there are a lot of good things happening in intensive care (ICU). Many lives are being saved and many critical illnesses are cured to the point where Patients can leave intensive care and go to a hospital ward.
More than 90% of critically ill Patients in intensive care do survive and that is fantastic news!
Many professionals in intensive care, doctors, nurses as well as allied health are doing overwhelmingly amazing work and it needs to be acknowledged on all levels!
By the same token whenever Patients in intensive care are either in a “real” or “perceived” end of life situation, the situation is often getting out of control for families in intensive care and if families in intensive care don’t do their own research and if they don’t exercise their rights the outcomes can be futile!
Related article/video:
Families in intensive care actually do have rights even though ICU teams want to make you believe that they are the ones holding the power and that they can make decisions in a vacuum.
Nothing could be further from the truth as the story that is to follow below will show you.
I’m so frustrated when families come to us and tell us “tomorrow at 5pm the intensive care team wants to stop life support on my loved one and they have told us there is nothing else we can do…”
That’s a whole lot of BS and you have rights and you just need to be shown your rights and you need to exercise them that’s often all it takes.
We can help you with all of the above because we understand intensive care inside out as professional consultants and advocates for families in intensive care.
After having worked in intensive care for 20 years in three different countries where I looked after thousands of critically ill Patients and their families and where I also worked as a nurse unit manager in intensive care I have seen enough to know and understand intensive care intimately.
I know and understand how ICU’s are run, what’s important to ICU’s and I also understand intimately what’s important to you who has a loved one in intensive care!
And I know how to get results for families in intensive care after having consulted and advocated for hundreds of families in intensive care all over the world here at intensivecarehotline.com.
The story below just confirms what I always say that Patients in intensive care are often being euthanized or potentially being murdered. The story of the intensive care Physician Dr Husel below – Dr Husel has been charged with the count of 25 murders of ICU Patients – confirms that families in intensive care often consent to or at least watch the potential murder of their loved ones without actually knowing what is happening.
Again, the biggest challenge for families in intensive care is that they don’t know what they don’t know.
There are very fine lines and many grey areas in intensive care when it comes to end of life situation.
The lines are blurred when it comes to palliative care, euthanasia and potentially murder. Nobody has the right to kill and life sustaining measures cannot be removed without family consent in most countries.
Just because a critically ill Patient in intensive care maybe dying if they are removed from life sustaining measures doesn’t mean that they wouldn’t recover if more time and more appropriate treatment is being given.
The biggest challenge and also worst case scenario for intensive care teams is to look after a Patient in intensive care indefinitely with an uncertain outcome. That’s when it gets tricky and challenging in intensive care, when the odds may not be in a Patient’s favor. Furthermore, the longer an ICU bed is occupied by a critically ill Patient the more hospital and ICU administration are looking at the Dollars as well as how many other potentially more profitable
Patients could be looked after in that ICU bed.
Related article:
Again, intensive care teams don’t operate in a vacuum and they have to follow rules, regulations, policies and laws. It’s interesting for me to read that the ICU physician Dr. Husel has administered large quantities and therefore lethal doses of Fentanyl to hasten death.
He administered those high and therefore lethal doses of Fentanyl even for Patients that were deemed brain dead.
It’s shocking and one of the reasons why he might have gotten away for so long with this criminal behavior is that families in intensive care are intimidated. They are intimidated by intensive care teams and again families in intensive care simply don’t know what they don’t know.
Even in the 21st century families of critically ill Patients in intensive care “suck up” to the doctors and to intensive care teams. This behavior needs to stop because it costs lives.
Related article/video:
The bottom line is that if you have a loved one in intensive care and you don’t act, you don’t ask questions, you don’t do your own research, your critically ill loved one may have less than desired outcomes, potentially lethal outcomes!
Act now before it’s too late, do your own research here at intensivecarehotline.com, read our case studies and make informed decisions, get peace of mind, control, power and influence!
Lastly, I’m also surprised that the ICU nurses involved in the Patients deaths didn’t question the administration of such high doses of Fentanyl.
Where they afraid to lose their jobs if they didn’t follow doctor’s orders?
Administering more than 500 mcg of Fentanyl as a bolus can be lethal, every ICU nurse should be aware of this fact and question before following orders blindly!
Please read the story below of Dr Husel, the ICU Physician in Ohio who has been charged for the count of 25 murders by Fentanyl overdose of Patients in ICU
https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/918717?src=WNL_infoc_191009_MSCPEDIT_MurderOpioid&uac=308383AV&impID=2123166&faf=1
Dr William Husel (right) shown leaving Franklin County court. Photo by John Futty/Dispatch
On June 5, Dr. William Scott Husel, 43, was indicted by a grand jury on 25 counts of murder—making him the target of one of the largest murder trials in the state’s history. Husel is accused of ordering opioid doses in such large amounts “that the only rational purpose could be to shorten a person’s life,” according to prosecutors.
The charges followed a 6-month investigation initiated by Mount Carmel Health System, where Husel worked as an intensive care physician, after a pharmacist alerted hospital staff about high doses of fentanyl ordered by Husel. The hospital concluded that the medications resulted in the deaths of at least 25 patients.
Has the widely publicized case against Husel caused Ohio medical professionals to look over their shoulders, worried that their own opioid prescribing might draw new levels of scrutiny?
THE CHARGES AGAINST HUSEL
The incidents involving Husel took place over a span of 4 years at Mount Carmel St. Ann’s hospital and the now-shuttered Mount Carmel West hospital. An acute care physician with a certification in anesthesiology, Husel ordered excessive and potentially fatal doses of fentanyl for inpatients who were already near death, according to the hospital.
Husel was originally investigated in connection with 35 patient deaths. Ultimately, he was charged with murder in 25 patient deaths, as a result of a decision by prosecutors to only charge instances in which patients were given a dose 5-10 times higher than that usually required to control severe pain. Some patients were ordered doses of 1000-2000 µg. The family of one patient alleges that Husel encouraged them to agree to removal of life-sustaining
care, and then ordered that a dose of 2000 µg of fentanyl be given. The patient died within 5 minutes of receiving that dose.
Staff at the facility were placed under a microscope as the administration and law enforcement tried to determine how this happened and whether current prescribing practices were abused, broken, or simply ignored. The Ohio Board of Nursing alleged that 25 nurses at Mount Carmel violated the Nurse Practice Act by failing to question “excessive” fentanyl doses.
Altogether, 23 nurses, pharmacists, and managers who had been involved at some level with administering these doses to the affected patients were fired. Eleven others were allowed to return to work with additional training. Mount Carmel Health System president and CEO Ed Lamb also resigned.
No other healthcare professionals at the hospitals were charged with murder. “In our view, the doctor who issued the order is the person that caused the chain of events to occur, and therefore that responsible person would be who we’d look at in terms of a criminal investigation,” Franklin County prosecutor Ron O’Brien said.
However, many were named in civil wrongful death suits. Unlike murder charges in criminal courts, which must be brought by the state, wrongful death suits are filed in civil courts by families on behalf of the deceased.
Franklin County prosecutor Ron O’Brien
Some families claimed that Husel informed them that their family member was brain dead and the doses were necessary to ensure comfort at the end of life. Several of the suits involve patients who died within hours—sometimes minutes—of each other. At least one death occurred after the hospital had received a formal complaint concerning Husel. The health system says in all cases, family members had decided to withdraw life-saving measures.
Both Husel and his attorney declined requests for an interview. But in statements to the press, they asserted that “at no time did Dr Husel ever intend to euthanize anyone.” Whether or not these doses can be justified will probably be the subject of dueling testimony by medical experts at trial. None of the physicians with whom Medscape spoke defended Husel.
The Ohio Board of Pharmacy and Ohio Board of Nursing also declined to comment for this story. Tessie Pollock, director of communications for the State Medical Board, said Ohio law prohibits the board from discussing how many or which employees were reviewed, the results of any reviews, or whether those reviews are still ongoing.
In August, Husel sued the hospital’s parent company for breach of contract, asserting that although the hospital has defended him in the 36 civil proceedings arising from these allegations, it and its insurance carrier have refused to cover the costs of his criminal trial, thus limiting his ability to mount a defense. To date, Mount Carmel has paid $13 million dollars to settle wrongful death suits filed by the families of the patients who
died. The hospital counters that Husel is not covered by the institution’s malpractice policy because he was charged with “purposeful murder.” Husel was accompanied by a new defense team during his last court appearance. A trial date is set for June 2020 and is anticipated to last several months.
