OH - Dr. William Husel accused of murdering 25 patients w/ Fentanyl Overdoses, Franklin Co, Jun 2019

William Husel's Lawyer Files Motion For Him To Leave The State

October 8, 2019

"...In a motion, defense attorney Jose Baez requested permission for Husel to leave the state for one day and night next week.

Husel has a court hearing in Michigan on October 16 for his lawsuit against Mount Carmel's parent company Trinity Health. He brought a suit against Trinity in August for not covering his criminal defense costs, as it had in dozens of related civil cases.

His attorney argues he is not a flight risk because he has complied with all conditions of his pre-trial release so far.

"He has attended all required court appearances and has complied with the condition of bi-weekly reporting imposed by this Court," the motions reads. ...

Husel has pleaded not guilty. His criminal trial is scheduled for June 2020, with jury selection set for the month before."

William Husel's Lawyer Files Motion For Him To Leave The State

 

Mount Carmel West, 3 pharmacists cited by state Pharmacy Board in Husel investigation - News - The Columbus Dispatch - Columbus, OH

 

WILLIAM HUSEL PRETRIAL HEARING

 

No one has the right to end someones life. It looks to me he didn't really like his job, and it was the easiest way to have less patients to take care of. If studied deeply there must had been plenty complaint to his friends or family about him not being comfortable in his work place perhaps long working hours was not his thing. I'm almost sure this Dr. enjoyed more the outdoors.

 

Exactly! Several of these people were not at deaths door, old etc. So many mistakenly think he only killed people that were about to die. Not true. He is a psychopath with a dr's license. No different than any other serial killer except that he had such easy access to murder people and get away with it.

As I posted when this first started; my daughter worked at this hospital as an RN. She was written up for "questioning a Dr's orders" and was warned not to do it again. Needless to say she didn't work there long. She said this hospital treats nurses worse than any place she had ever worked.

IMO Mt Carmel is absolutely an accomplice to his murders. For them to now go after the nurses, is just wrong. Mt Carmel is the one that fostered the "Dr's are always right/never question them".

I have also always felt his wife was in on it. IMO there is no way she didn't know what he was doing.

 

It's pretty disgusting to think of the kind of people who would try and defend a murderer by saying the people who were going to die soon anyway. Like that would justify it? I could just go kill the sick and elderly myself and it wouldn't be so bad?

Yes, also despicable to go after the nurses. :/ Since when are nurses supposed to start questioning all the doctor's prescriptions?

 

Hmm. I just read an article that a bunch of nurses are defending him? Like 35? They said that these people were at end stage, terminal and in huge amounts of pain and that the high doses of fentanyl were to relieve pain.

It’s unusual to have that many nurses defend a medical professional accused of murder.

 

That's really odd. Because I thought the reason he was being prosecuted was because they KNEW they weren't all end stage. And that the amounts he was prescribing were far above what was normally given for end stage anyway. Can you link the article @gitana1 ?

 

This article gives a lot of information and why they’re defending him. It’s a bit confusing to me but startling.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna1102796

 

Well that was certainly interesting and does give me pause.

 

Hospital doctor's murder trial in 25 deaths delayed until 2021

April 20th 2020

"...William Husel was scheduled for trial in Columbus this June, but it was delayed by a ban on mass gatherings because of the coronavirus, and related changes in court operations. A Franklin County judge on Monday rescheduled the trial to start May 10, 2021...."

Hospital doctor's murder trial in 25 deaths delayed until 2021

 

Do you suppose these people defending him are trying to save themselves? Jmo

 

I don’t know. I mean they seem pretty adamant that he didn’t do anything wrong.

 

I lived in Grove City Ohio a suburb of Columbus and the location for the new Mt. Carmel. I just have to say Mt. Carmel in my book has always had a good reputation. I birthed my children there, I have had surgeries there, my family members have always gone to Mt Carmel.The neighbor hood in which Mt. Carmel is located, is very poor ,a place known as the “bottoms”. IMO this doctor maybe took matters into his own hands concerning the poverty level of these patients, would it have happened differently in a wealthier neighborhood? Then I noticed he hired Jose Baez the attorney that represented Casey Anthony. You just have to wonder what his thoughts were. MOO

 

Judge: Hospital need not fund William Husel's defense in murder case

May 20th 2020

"COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A Michigan-based health system and its insurer don’t have to cover the costs of an Ohio doctor’s defense against murder charges in the deaths of 25 hospital patients, a federal judge ruled....

Mount Carmel's parent company, Livonia-based Trinity Health Corporation, and the insurer argued the liability policy at issue in Husel’s lawsuit against them doesn’t cover criminal defense expenses. U.S. District Judge George Caram Steeh agreed and dismissed the case Tuesday...."

Judge: Hospital need not fund William Husel's defense in murder case

 

"The lawsuit filed by the former Mount Carmel employees says that there was no ceiling for fentanyl doses related to the removal of a patient's breathing tube and other life support measures and that the policy at the time allowed doctors to give what they believed was necessary."

He’s accused of murdering 25 patients. Nurses say he never broke protocol.

 

Actually its 10 not 35. And they were terminated so they filed a lawsuit. To defend themselves they have to defend him.

"Ten former colleagues of an Ohio physician accused earlier this year of murdering 25 of his hospital patients with excessive doses of pain medicine are standing by him, alleging in a lawsuit filed Thursday that the hospital wrongfully terminated and defamed them."

 

This should be easy to verify, just look at the hospital's written policy. From your link:

"The ex-colleagues contend that Husel, who had additional certification in anesthesiology, had been working within the hospital's "flexible and discretion-permitting policies" that allowed doctors and staff to administer "high but appropriate doses of fentanyl" to patients who were being removed from life support. They maintain that no one was trying to hasten those patients' deaths with pain medication or to euthanize them, which is illegal in Ohio."

...

"Becky McNeil, a former clinical educator at Mount Carmel who began her career as a registered nurse in the ICU in 2000, said patients who were being kept alive by ventilators and other life support measures were evaluated differently. If life support was being withdrawn, she said, those patients might require higher doses of fentanyl than would patients who didn't have minutes left to live.

And just because someone was uncommunicative or unconscious, she added, didn't mean they weren't in pain and didn't require relief.

"You can see people tense up, or they may have an increased heart rate," McNeil said of those patients."

These were patients being taken off life support, who were probably going to die shortly. Dr. Husel specialized in anesthesia, so had more training in administering pain meds in these situations. Having been present for family members at the end of life, the procedures to prevent patients suffering has to be done carefully. Usually, the nurses or doctors will advise family members of the risks in providing these drugs.

Fentanyl has been used to control extreme pain in terminally ill cancer patients for decades, and I assume its used for other health conditions. It's a very fine line between adequately treating pain for these patients and having the medication cause their death. No one wants a patient to die in pain.

I'm beginning to think Dr. Husel didn't do anything wrong here, unless there's other incriminating evidence to come. If the hospital administrators wanted more specific guidelines about the use of pain medication in these situations, they should have prepared them before this happened. Also assuming the decision to remove these patients from life support was made by a team of doctors with the consent of family, per standard practice.

Yes, a lot of patients died under his care, but that's the nature of his job. He was primarily caring for very sick patients being removed from life support. It's a terrible job, but someone has to do it. If, as the hospital claims, there were 6 patients who could have continued living on life support, they should have charged the doctor with those deaths only.

JMO, this is a difficult situation, but I'm getting the impression the hospital overreacted with these charges. They claim they charged on cases where the doctor administered 500 micrograms of fentanyl, which is equivalent to 0.5 milligrams. A fatal dose (as in a drug overdose) of fentanyl is considered to be 2 milligrams, so the amount Dr. Husel administered is below the level considered an overdose.

Fentanyl: What Is a Lethal Dosage? - Oxford Treatment Center

It will be interesting to see, in the cases of the 6 patients in question, how much other doctors were involved in the treatment of these patients prior to their death and what decisions were made by whom when patients were put on life support and later removed from it.

ETA: This earlier article claims he gave one patient 2000 micrograms of fentanyl, which would be 2 mg considered an overdose

Attorney: Husel gave patient paralytics before lethal fentanyl dose