Back to an old theme…

A doctor accused in a 2003 prescription-fraud case was arrested again Wednesday on manslaughter charges stemming from the deaths of three of his patients.

Dr. Sarfraz Mirza turned himself in at the Brevard County Detention Center in Sharpes and posted $50,000 bond.

Formal charges against the 63-year-old include three counts of manslaughter and one count each of trafficking morphine and oxycodone.

Mirza’s attorney, Greg Eisenmenger, on Wednesday said the accusations are “unfounded and ridiculous.”

[...]

isenmenger said the state’s theory appears to be that doctors should be responsible for patients who die from failing to follow medical instructions.

“That’s a frightening concept to me,” he said. “Based on review of discovery, there was no basis for any manslaughter charges.”

Melbourne Police Detective John Pasko, who helped work the case, said that’s not the situation.

Medical experts “determined within reasonable medical certainty that Dr. Mirza’s prescribing practices were outside the standard of care and resulted in the deaths of the three patients,” Pasko said in an e-mailed statement.

Just about any medication can prove lethal if used improperly. We’ll have to wait for details on this case. But I can’t envision a scenario in which an opiate pain relief prescription could possibly justify a manslaughter charge. See here for more.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 28th, 2005 at 12:28 pm by Radley Balko and is filed under Pain Treatment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.