MSU COM graduate is convicted of murder

[Barranc]

A landmark case....

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/...s-murder-overdose-verdict-20151030-story.html

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[Bbutterfly]

You gotta love some of the comments!

"edlands Laker-Dodger fan
@philip90503 She graduated from an osteopathic school in Michigan and today just about anyone can get into Osteopathic Medical Schools as long as you have money. She is a D.O. not an M.D."

 

[costales]

It should have been manslaughter and/or loss of license at most. If this LA Times-inspired verdict is upheld, good luck to all the FM docs out there - and to all their patients.

Meanwhile, bars in Texas are immune from liability for serving drunks or serving minors if their staff complete a quick online class.

 

[costales]

You gotta love some of the comments!

"edlands Laker-Dodger fan
@philip90503 She graduated from an osteopathic school in Michigan and today just about anyone can get into Osteopathic Medical Schools as long as you have money. She is a D.O. not an M.D."

Thus spake someone who couldn't get in MSU.

 

[user121]

skimmed it. Not sure how bias the article is for one side or the other. Maybe its true but it makes it sound like the addicts would come in and be like yo i want oxi and she'd just prescribe it. Assuming that wasn't the case, I really think the "victims" should be held more accountable for their actions, not the doctor.

 

[GUH]

Holding a doctor accountable for murder because of the deceptive actions of addicts is insane. I hope the decision is appealed.

I'm pleasantly suprised at the number of comments which disagree with the verdict.

 

[costales]

Most FM patients have a hard time getting off their couch. Kudos to anyone who can wean them off their pain meds.

 

[Dr. Death]

You gotta love some of the comments!

"edlands Laker-Dodger fan
@philip90503 She graduated from an osteopathic school in Michigan and today just about anyone can get into Osteopathic Medical Schools as long as you have money. She is a D.O. not an M.D."

With all the new DO schools this comment isn't terribly far from being the case

 

[GUH]

With all the new DO schools this comment isn't terribly far from being the case

Actually, it is terribly far from being the case. Your net worth has nothing to do with admissions decisions, even at newer schools.

 

[Bbutterfly]

With all the new DO schools this comment isn't terribly far from being the case

Really??? You want to tell me you can show up at a school with a 2.0 GPA and they will take you just bcse it's a D.O school and you have the money? I guess I missed that memo!

 

[IslandStyle808]

With all the new DO schools this comment isn't terribly far from being the case

It is much harder to get in now overall than back then. A 25 MCAT could have given you a decent shot at KCU at one point, now it is their bare minimum. Even new schools have bare minimums of before secondaries or interviews that serve as a filter.

 

[asdf123g]

It is much harder to get in now overall than back then. A 25 MCAT could have given you a decent shot at KCU at one point, now it is their bare minimum. Even new schools have bare minimums of before secondaries or interviews that serve as a filter.

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/stats-for-do-school.22751/#post-17026544

 

[AlbinoHawk DO]

"Joey, died nearly six years ago after mixing alcohol with Xanax and oxycodone he had obtained from Tseng"

This is absolute BS. Now we're responsible for when a patient decided to take alcohol with their medication?

She wrote them a prescription for the very thing they're addicted to. She shoved them over that cliff.- Deputy Dist. Atty. John Niedermann

So you rather just cut them off immediately from a benzo so they can have seizures and die faster? Maybe don't give them the opioid either so they can go get heroin in the streets.

The investigation also found that Tseng's patients included at least three people who had been charged with dealing drugs and a fourth who was suspected by police of doing so.

Did she know this? Did she prescribe an amount that's beyond what the patient needs? Do drug dealers never get sick?

 

[Dorsal00]

how were there no warnings or prior investigations? how did it go on for so long

 

[samac]

Jesus.
I could see manslaughter and license revoked but murder 2?
That's insane

 

[thepoopologist]

Correct me if I'm wrong. I'd read somewhere she'd known about these deaths, was given a warning/notice to be more cautious in her prescribing habits, and did not change anything at all. It mentions she falsified records. It mentions undercover agents posing as patients, and seeing with their own eyes prescribing habits that confirmed their suspicions. It gives the appearance of someone who basically gave in to money, and patient demands for X medicine, rather than a cautious physician who did their due diligence and still had patients being stupid and dying. It's not all her fault of course. A grown adult who obtains pain medications and/or benzodiazepines to party, uses them stupidly and dies should be held accountable for their own actions (and they are, by their death). It takes a lot of fortitude to toe the line, give people the benefit of the doubt, and reign them in or cut them off when they disobey orders. Prescribing recklessly will result in people dying left and right. Cutting everyone off will not result in people dying, but patients suffering when they may benefit from responsible use of these medications. While legally, the second option sounds better, the job is not to cover your ass, it's to find the fine balance that identifies the addicts and identifies the people with legitimate pain and anxiety issues.

 

[feeling-dizzy]

Read the article, one of her patient mixed xanax, oxycodone and alcohol to get high. She did not recommend that. It is the patient's fault. Plain and symbol. If you want to get high even though you can die, then that is in on you. How about putting liquor owner in jail for overdose or cirrhosis of alcoholics?. Ridiculous. Bunch of liberals in California don't even have common sense.

 

[thepoopologist]

https://www.reddit.com/r/pharmacy/comments/3r0ev6/doctor_convicted_of_murder_in_overdose_deaths_of/

One of the comments:

"I have seen her prescriptions. It was a long time ago but there were always totally ridiculous. Always max quantity and strength. Oxycontin 80mg 1TID #270 Roxycodone, Xanax 2mg #180, Soma #270 or something like that. And the people coming in were always sketchy, 25 year olds and such, no insurance. There was a LA times or OC register article where they had undercover DEA agents go in and she would just give them a script without even examining them and people were in her parking lot comparing what they got."

Ok, if this is true, that is insane. That's pill mill quantity prescribing, something she continued after she was warned of several patient deaths related to her prescribing. The pharmacist who filled the prescriptions even got their licenses revoked.

http://www.pharmacy.ca.gov/enforcement/fy1011/ac103802.pdf
Page 16 of the pdf or Page 10 of the actual document

A. Drug Usage Reports for OxyContin 80 from 2008 to January 2010 revealed that the majority ofthe prescriptions filled by Pacifica Pharmacy were for 80 mg strength and that several prescribers, induding Dr. T., wrote those prescriptions.

B. From January 1,2009, to January 6,2010, Dr. T. wrote 11,486 controlled substance prescriptions, 917 of which were for OxyContin 80 mg, 654 of which were for Opana ER 40 mg, and 2,671 of which were for Alprazolam 2 mg.

C. Pacifica Pharmacy filled 1,844 ofDr. T.'s 11,486 controlled substance prescriptions, about three times more than the next highest number filled in Pacifica Pharmacy's trade area.

D. From March 25,2008 to January 13,2010, Pacifica Pharmacy dispensed more than 81,000 prescriptions. Controlled substances accounted for 14,063, or 17 percent ofthe prescriptions; OxyContin 80 mg accounted for 42 percent of all Schedule II controlled substance prescriptions. Pacifica Pharmacy filled more OxyContin 80 mg prescriptions than were filled by surrounding pharmacies - 803 OxyContin 80 mg prescriptions were filled by Pacifica Pharmacy; 389 were filled by Medical Towers Pharmacy; 281 were filled by Walgreens #5771; 129 were filled by CVS #8850; 38 were filled by CVS #6782,21 were filled by Sav On #6124, and even fewer were filled by other pharmacies.

E. Ofthe 18 Pacifica Pharmacy patients that Inspector Wong selected for review because he observed that those patients presented OxyContin 80 mg prescriptions written by Dr. T., 15 patients had traveled 35 or more miles from 10 their home to see Dr. T. and 15 ofthem lived 20 miles or more from Pacifica Pharmacy.

F. Dr. T. 's prescribing practices, based on a review of some prescriptions filled by Pacifica Pharmacy, showed duplication in therapy (e.g., OxyContin 80 mg. and Opana ER were prescribed in combination and were to be taken at the same time) and a combination of several drugs was often prescribed (e.g., the combination ofAlprazolam and Opana or the combination ofAlprazolam, hydromorphone and OxyContin).

G. Many ofDr. T. 's patients to whom OxyContin was dispensed paid in cash.

 

[Jinxapotato]

I feel at MOST this should be considered a manslaughter. Murder?! Oh cmon!

 

[thepoopologist]

Per the pharmacy pdf:

According to Investigator Wong, OxyContin has a value of $1 per mg on the black market, so that the cost of an OxyContin 80 mg tablet on the street is $80.

270 tabs of Oxycontin 80 mg = $21,600 sweet deal

 

[thepoopologist]

I feel at MOST this should be considered a manslaughter. Murder?! Oh cmon!

I'm conflicted about it the more I read. I want to side with the majority opinion for my own selfish purposes. This will bring a lot of heat on all of us. However, if a physician was informed beforehand of multiple deaths associated with their prescribing habits, and continued said prescribing habits until more deaths resulted, forcing the police to knock down their door, did they not dig their own grave? I'm pissed off that the California Osteopathic medical board didn't suspend her license and scare some sense into her before this all came to fruition.


Edit:
http://abc7.com/news/former-recepti...-rowland-heights-doctors-murder-trial/971035/

There's a video of her office

 

[costales]

Perhaps because of California's budget problems?

California medical board fails to discipline 710 troubled doctors
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/aug/10/local/la-me-0810-medical-board-20110810
Report: California failed to discipline hundreds of dangerous doctors
http://www.ocregister.com/taxdollars/strong-478213-medical-board.html

(Of course, in Texas there was Dr. Christopher Duntsch.
http://www.texasobserver.org/anatomy-tragedy/)

 

[68PGunner]

I'm conflicted about it the more I read. I want to side with the majority opinion for my own selfish purposes. This will bring a lot of heat on all of us. However, if a physician was informed beforehand of multiple deaths associated with their prescribing habits, and continued said prescribing habits until more deaths resulted, forcing the police to knock down their door, did they not dig their own grave? I'm pissed off that the California Osteopathic medical board didn't suspend her license and scare some sense into her before this all came to fruition.


Edit:
http://abc7.com/news/former-recepti...-rowland-heights-doctors-murder-trial/971035/

There's a video of her office

Yup, I saw the full story. I don't even feel sorry for this woman and her husband one bit.

 

[costales]

Edit:
http://abc7.com/news/former-recepti...-rowland-heights-doctors-murder-trial/971035/

There's a video of her office

Damn. Sounds like she took her business model from that pill mill in Florida:
http://www.tbo.com/news/crime/pill-mill-owners-turn-snitch-to-cut-jail-time-20150301/

 

[Siggy]

Holding a doctor accountable for murder because of the deceptive actions of addicts is insane. I hope the decision is appealed.

I'm pleasantly suprised at the number of comments which disagree with the verdict.

The problem I see is I don't know how the verdict can be appealed. Generally appeal courts is limited to procedural manners. Unless the defense can put up a compelling case that this really doesn't meet the definition of second degree murder, then I doubt that an appeal will be successful. In California, murder is differentiated from man slaughter by the presence of malice. Malice is defined as...

188. Such malice may be express or implied. It is express when
there is manifested a deliberate intention unlawfully to take away
the life of a fellow creature. It is implied, when no considerable
provocation appears, or when the circumstances attending the killing
show an abandoned and malignant heart. (emphasis added)

If the argument is that she is prescribing controlled substances only for money and doesn't give 2 cares if her patients dies from it, especially if she has had several patients already overdose from her prescribing practices, then that would meet that definition.

 

[Siggy]

Most FM patients have a hard time getting off their couch. Kudos to anyone who can wean them off their pain meds.

Wean them off? I think if anything it's going to be cold turkey and a referal to pain management. If I was practicing outpatient medicine in California, all of a sudden all of my Xanax patients would find themselves with 30 days to find a psychiatrist and all of my chronic pain patients would have 30 days to find a pain medicine doc. My responsibility to patients end when their aggregate actions could end me in jail.

 

[GUH]

The problem I see is I don't know how the verdict can be appealed. Generally appeal courts is limited to procedural manners. Unless the defense can put up a compelling case that this really doesn't meet the definition of second degree murder, then I doubt that an appeal will be successful. In California, murder is differentiated from man slaughter by the presence of malice. Malice is defined as...

188. Such malice may be express or implied. It is express when
there is manifested a deliberate intention (emphasis added) unlawfully to take away
the life of a fellow creature. It is implied, when no considerable
provocation appears, or when the circumstances attending the killing
show an abandoned and malignant heart.

If the argument is that she is prescribing controlled substances only for money and doesn't give 2 cares if her patients dies from it, especially if she has had several patients already overdose from her prescribing practices, then that would meet that definition.

I'm not a lawyer but the definition requires deliberate intention to kill. Clearly if money was the motivation then she would not have deliberately tried to kill her patients. Perhaps she took unnecessary risks with their lives, but that doesn't mean she tried to kill them.

 

[thepoopologist]

Her actions and subsequent conviction, whether people think she deserved it or not, is a message from the legal community that we can be held responsible for other peoples actions, given enough unheeded warnings and reckless practice.

Plus,
http://www.news4jax.com/news/georgi...ears-for-operating-pill-mill-clinics/27373836

This dude got 20 years, and it doesn't look like any of his patients died because of his prescriptions. It seems we're held to a higher legal standard than the gun shop owner or bartender.