Life in Prison for Doctor in Opioid OD Death

[Emergent, RN]

For those of you who say doctors don't get prosecuted, here's one who got sentenced to life in prison for the opioid death of a patient.

I haven't researched the case, but assume his malpractice was egregious. Still, the sentence sounds over the top.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/kansas-doctor-gets-life-in-prison-after-patients-opioid-overdose-death

"The overdose victim, Nick McGovern, 32, went to Henson and was overprescribed the anti-anxiety drug alprazolam and methadone, used to wean addicts off heroin, the jury found. McGovern died in 2015.

“Before you, he wouldn’t even take an aspirin for a headache,” Denise McGovern said to Henson, referring to her son, according to the newspaper. “... He was sent to you by his physician. You made him into an addict.”

The Eagle quoted McGovern’s wife Burgundy Castillo as saying, “No sentence will bring Nick back to us, but if Steven Henson had treated Nick instead of enabling him, he would have still been with us today.”"

[Kallie3006, ADN]

When reading this article the punishment seems harsh and far fetched, but if you Google his name and read more articles relating to the various counts against him that he was being tried on, the sentence makes more sense. According to one article he raised his rate from $50 to $300 in order to pay for his office space, he falsified medical records, called 911 claiming armed robbery an hour and a half after being served a search warrant for his home, and there was other things listed.

I do not buy the comment that the victims mother made about Mr. Govern not taking aspirin for a headache but ODs on Xanax and methadone, generally those are not force-fed to someone. It is definitely a serial of unfortunate events that has led up to the death of this gentleman and subsequent sentencing of this doctor.

[Daisy4RN]

This article gives a little more info:

https://www.kansas.com/news/local/crime/article227324124.html

This MD needed to be arrested, it is appalling to me that a MD would do this to his real patients and/or take advantage of people in this manner!

We have a big problem here in the US that seems to get pushed under the rug. The below quotes are from the DHS:

"Each week, approximately 300 Americans have died from heroin overdoses, of which nearly 90% comes across our southern border.

Just last month, CBP made the largest seizure fentanyl ever recorded attempting to cross the southern border. It was enough to kill more than 115 million Americans.

Alarmingly, CBP has reported that fentanyl smuggling between ports of entry at the southern border has more than doubled over our last fiscal year. Fentanyl was responsible for more than 28,400 overdose deaths variety of Americans in 2017. Just a few weeks ago, CBP made its largest fentanyl bust in U.S. history, seizing 254 pounds hidden in a truck trailer compartment."

https://www.dhs.gov/news/2019/03/06/humanitarian-and-security-crisis-southern-border-reaches-breaking-point

This country needs to get a grip on this problem!

[Sour Lemon]

He's certainly a shady character, but I don't believe he caused anyone's death. The victim would have gotten his drugs one way or another, and ironically, this way was actually "safer" than buying something (that could be anything) on the street.

[Asystole RN]

1 hour ago, Sour Lemon said:

He's certainly a shady character, but I don't believe he caused anyone's death. The victim would have gotten his drugs one way or another, and ironically, this way was actually "safer" than buying something (that could be anything) on the street.

Safer because the patient might have died from contaminated drugs? Definitely safer to die from the real thing. Who knows, he might have died before he died.

[Sour Lemon]

7 minutes ago, Asystole RN said:

Safer because the patient might have died from contaminated drugs? Definitely safer to die from the real thing. Who knows, he might have died before he died.

"Safer" ...because at the very least, he knew what he was actually taking. The scare quotes are important here, BTW.

[BrisketRN, BSN, RN]

It looks like the actual charge was unlawful distribution of prescription drugs.

A quote from the judge: "The defendant kept no medical records, performed no physical examinations or physical tests, gave massive amounts of opioids to patients with little demonstrated need, wrote unneeded, non-controlled prescriptions in order to defeat pharmacy limits on controlled substances, and knew that patients were traveling improbably long distances to receive opioids. There was ample evidence that Henson was prescribing opioid medications in amounts likely to lead to addiction, and in amounts so expensive that the patients would likely be forced by economic circumstances to support their addiction by selling some of the drugs to others.”

I'm sure there's more to this than a news article can outline, but it appears Henson profited greatly off his "patients" becoming addicted and paying him for prescriptions.

[Swellz]

Props to that pharmacist. I worked in a retail pharmacy for years before becoming a nurse, and most pharmacists would just refuse the prescription, but not report the doctor. I worked with 7 or 8 over several years but only one of them routinely reported shady doctors/prescriptions.

[BeccaCRN]

Still think the crisis began with TJC adding pain as the 5th vital sign. Snowballed from they.