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Ohio Doctor Is Charged With 25 Murders in Overdose Deaths Ohio Doctor Is Charged With 25 Murders in Fentanyl Overdose Deaths
(about 2 hours later)
An Ohio doctor was charged on Wednesday with 25 counts of murder, with the authorities accusing him of deliberately causing patients’ deaths by prescribing fatal doses of painkillers. An Ohio doctor was charged on Wednesday with 25 counts of murder, with the authorities accusing him of deliberately causing patients’ deaths by prescribing fatal doses of the powerful opioid fentanyl.
A grand jury indicted Dr. William Husel, 43, who turned himself in to the police on Wednesday in Columbus, the state capital.A grand jury indicted Dr. William Husel, 43, who turned himself in to the police on Wednesday in Columbus, the state capital.
The charges came after a six-month criminal investigation found that Dr. Husel purposely caused the deaths of dozens of patients over several years by ordering excessive doses of painkillers. A lawyer for Dr. Husel has said that he did not intend to kill any patients. The charges came after a six-month criminal investigation found that Dr. Husel purposely caused the deaths of dozens of critical-care patients over four years by ordering excessive doses of painkillers. A lawyer for Dr. Husel has said that he did not intend to kill any patients.
Dr. Husel, who had worked for the Mount Carmel Health System in the Columbus area, was fired in December. “This breach of the doctor’s oath is vile,” said Tom Quinlan, the police chief in Columbus, on Wednesday.
He will not face the death penalty if convicted, according to a county prosecutor, Ron O’Brien. In Ohio, a death sentence can be imposed only in cases of aggravated murder, Mr. O’Brien said at a news conference on Wednesday. Dr. Husel, who had worked for the Mount Carmel Health System in the Columbus area, was fired in December, and the State Medical Board suspended his license.
The doctor administered fentanyl in various amounts between 500 and 2,000 micrograms, according to the county prosecutor, Ron O’Brien, who said that the dosages hastened or caused the patients’ deaths.
“These are very high fentanyl doses for patients without significant opioid tolerance,” said Dr. Lewis S. Nelson, a professor of emergency medicine at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School and an expert on opioid prescriptions. He said doses of 2,000 micrograms, or even 500 micrograms, “should have been questioned” by a pharmacist or nurse, and “would generally prove consequential and most likely lethal in most patients.”
A typical fentanyl dose for a surgical patient is about 25 to 50 micrograms, though for procedures like open-heart surgeries, patients might get 250 to 500 micrograms, according to Harm Reduction Ohio.
The county prosecutor, Mr. O’Brien, said that a pharmacist had alerted hospital authorities to high dosage amounts that sometimes required overriding the hospital protocols. Mount Carmel began an investigation, which it said was continuing, and that it was cooperating with law enforcement.
Each of the 25 murder charges carries a possible prison sentence of 15 years to life, and the death penalty does not apply in the case.
Dr. Husel graduated from Ohio University College of Osteopathic Medicine and completed his residency and fellowship at Cleveland Clinic Hospital. As a teenager, he pleaded guilty to improperly storing a destructive device or pipe bomb at Wheeling Jesuit College in Wheeling, W.V. He was sentenced to six months in jail and one year of supervised release.
Mr. Husel admitted that after the device detonated in 1994, he attempted to falsely incriminate another person by placing a pipe and other items in the person’s car.