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| Brad Harris, CEO of hospice agency Novus |
A
Texas hospice nurse admitted she overmedicated two patients at the
direction of her company’s CEO in order to speed their deaths, court
records reveal.
But at this point, no one has been charged with murder.
Nurse
Taryn Stuart is expected, instead, to plead guilty to one count of
conspiracy to commit health care fraud. The 34-year-old is one of 16
total defendants in a criminal case against them and their employer,
Novus Health Services Inc. and Optim Health Services Inc.
The records show that Harris – who isn’t medically trained — texted Stuart that one of their patients “better not make it tomorrow. Or I will blame u.”
Harris
routinely advised several nurses on patient care that included
overmedicating and changing end-of-life directives and had doctors
falsify prescription and death records, authorities allege. His
instructions were carried out by registered nurses and licensed
practical nurses or the staffers were swiftly replaced with someone,
often Stuart, who would “do it right,” according to the documents.
A number of texts were discovered to be linked to the deaths of patients referred to as J.J and B.R in the court filings.
“I
told this chick if she would just give her 1ml of Ativan and turn her
she would die,” Harris wrote to Stuart about a lethal dose of a sedative
is quoted in the documents.
“Yeah
I bet a good few hours of 1ml Ativan and 2ml morphine q1hr would help
that right along,” Stuart agreed with the CEO, using the medical
shorthand “q1hr” to refer to each or every hour.
Similar
texts about medications and doses that worked “like a charm” between
Stuart and her supervisor-turned-co-defendant, Jessica Love, were noted
in the report as well.
“turn
off o2 (oxygen) or down to nothing if family at bedside… give 2 mg
Ativan – 20 of morphine and start fresh with meds,” Love messaged
Stuart.
“Those are the same things I always do…” Stuart replied. “Great minds think alike.”
At
this point, the only pleas made by defendants in the case are in
connection to fraudulent activity, not the deaths. It remains unclear
why no murder charges have been brought against Stuart, Harris, Love or
any other defendant.
"It's
not the nature of law enforcement to ignore a higher and greater
offense," criminal defense attorney Barry Sorrels told the Dallas Morning News.
The
penalty for murder could be life in prison – regardless of the health
status of the deceased, including hospice patients who likely didn’t
have much time left to live.
"This has murder and conspiracy to commit murder all over it,” medical malpractice lawyer Jack Walker told the news site. “All of the distribution of controlled substance allegations stem around murder.”
"These
intentional acts? This is horrific," Walker added. "This is probably
the worst that you could see because all of this is for a business
purpose."
Stuart’s
conspiracy plea says that between June 2012 and September 2015, she
defrauded Medicare and Medicaid by “admitting patient beneficiaries to
Novus hospice service who were not eligible,” and later billing the
government health offices for services that were never provided to
anyone.
Full Article & Source:
Nurse admits she overmedicated hospice patients to death – but no murder charges filed
I don't get it. IF she's not indicted, then that's a strong message that what she did was A-OK. I know prosecutors take cases they are pretty sure they'll win, but even if they don't have enough to win, they've won for the elderly just by the indictment.
ReplyDeleteIt's more important to go after the company/CEO who "practiced medicine without a license," and had a policy of harming patients for profit, not to mention defrauding medicare, in order to set president and prevent other companies from doing the same. Murder charges would be difficult to prosecute if the patients were all terminal and non-communicative at the time of death.
ReplyDeletePlease reread. They admitted they went after others not terminal. Do you ever think there is a larger reason this is happening? You would be right. Its the most public side of genocide. Honey the Nazis didn't quit they simply changed tactics. Look to the other side of the equation assisted suicide. It started in earnest in the Netherlands and has expanded from there all across the globe. The definitions allowing it have also expanded. Couple this with what you see about gaurdianships.Its not an accident. They go hand in glove. Its also about looting properties bank accounts. The sociopathic guardians feel entitled to steal. Its no different than Germany. They start with the marginal, then move on to others, not so marginal. Its the same mind set, they think they are smarter better and more entitled than those they abuse and torture.
ReplyDelete