LAWSUIT AGAINST PRINCE’S DOCTOR
The family claimed that the doctor had an opportunity to treat Prince’s opioid addiction prior to his death
The family of late musician Prince is suing his former doctor, who prescribed him pain medication. Prince died of an accidental overdose of Fentanyl in April 2016.
The family says that the doctor failed to treat his addiction and provided him with narcotics without a proper prescription, reports abcnews.go.com.
The lawsuit, which was filed in Minnesota District Court on Friday, alleged that Dr Michael T Schulenberg, the physician who treated Prince twice in the days prior to his death, failed to properly treat the musician as he was suffering from an opioid addiction. “He failed to appropriately evaluate, diagnose, treat and counsel Prince for his recognisable opioid addiction, and further failed to take appropriate and reasonable steps to prevent the foreseeably fatal result of that addiction,” read the lawsuit.
“These departures from the standard of acceptable medical practice had a substantial part in bringing about Prince’s death.”
According to John Goetz, the attorney, who is representing Prince’s family in its ongoing suit against the Illinois hospital that treated Prince days prior to his death, the lawsuit brings the fight for accountability back to the musician’s home state.
“Prince lived in Minnesota all his life and passed away here,” abcnews.go.com quoted Goetz as saying. “So we always thought his family’s lawsuit belonged in Minnesota.”