Doctor’s license pulled
Medicaid also looking into possible fraud surrounding deaths at Mount Carmel West
The State Medical Board of Ohio voted Friday to suspend the license of a former Mount Carmel Health System doctor accused of repeatedly ordering potentially fatal dosages of painkillers for patients.
The board has determined that there is clear and convincing evidence that Dr. William Husel violated state law and that allowing him to continue practicing would present a danger of immediate and Husel
serious harm to the public, according to a notice sent to the doctor regarding the suspension.
The suspension order says Husel asserted a constitutional right against selfincrimination on Tuesday when asked by board representatives if he administered the opioid painkiller fentanyl or fentanyl combined with the sedative midazolam for the purpose of ending patient lives.
Mount Carmel has said that at least 34 near-death patients received excessive amounts of pain medication ordered by the 43-year-old Husel, of Liberty Township, while the patients were in intensive-care units. Of those 34 patients, 33 were at Mount Carmel West hospital and one was at Mount Carmel St. Ann’s hospital.
All 34 patients died, and executives have said that the dosage given was potentially fatal in 28 of the deaths.
The suspension notice says that from February 2015 to November 2018, at least 27 Mount Carmel patients received doses of controlled substances that were at fatal levels, significantly above the acceptable range. It specifically refers
to two unidentified patients, treated in January 2018 and October 2018, and names fentanyl, midazolam and the painkiller hydromorphone.
One of those two patients is James “Nick” Timmons, 39, who died Oct. 24. Timmons had been taken to Mount Carmel West after being found at home following a cocaine overdose on Oct. 22, according to his attorney, Craig Tuttle, and his family.
Timmons underwent orthopedic surgery around noon on Oct. 23 and was responsive when his brother, Lynn Marshall, came to visit him that evening. But after what doctors told Marshall were cardiac arrest incidents, Marshall said he made the decision to take his brother off a ventilator and stop any resuscitation efforts if he were to go into another cardiac arrest.
“He didn’t even look like my brother,” Marshall said at a news conference Friday. “I felt like he’d already left.”
Timmons’ 18-year-old son, Shane, has asked Marshall to take over the estate and legal process for his father. Marshall said reliving his brother’s death every day has been difficult.
“We trust these people with our lives,” he said.
Columbus attorney James Mcgovern, of the Graff & Mcgovern firm representing Husel, said in an email
Friday that neither the doctor nor his legal team had any comment about allegations against him.
Also Friday, Ohio Department of Medicaid spokesman Tom Betti said the agency suspended its agreement with Husel and referred findings to the Ohio attorney general’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit.
A Thursday letter notifying Husel of the suspension says the department had found a credible allegation of fraud based on Husel’s administration of medically unnecessary services that were billed to Medicaid. Betti said those alleged services were grossly inappropriate dosages of fentanyl, a powerful opioid.
Mount Carmel fired Husel in December, and six pharmacists and 14 nurses have been placed on administrative leave as a result of the health system’s internal investigation. Columbus police and the Franklin County prosecutor’s office are investigating, and the Ohio Department of Health is looking into the matter for the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Service.
The Medical Board suspension says Husel could face various sanctions against his license, up to permanent revocation, as well as a fine of up to $20,000.
Spokeswoman Tessie Pollock said the board issued a “summary” suspension, which is the fastest means to remove a licensee from practice but requires a higher burden of proof than regular actions because a doctor does not get a hearing prior to the board’s vote. Husel now has 30 days to request a hearing.
Two new civil lawsuits filed Friday in Franklin County Common Pleas Court bring to six the number of lawsuits naming Mount Carmel Health Systems, Husel and nurses and pharmacists involved in the ordering and administration of the pain medication.
The latest lawsuits were filed by attorney Gerald Leeseberg on behalf of family members of James Allen and Joanne Bellisari.
Allen died May 28 after being given fentanyl.
His time of death was 11:40 p.m. — 20 minutes before his 81st birthday.
Allen had been in the hospital since May 24, when he had been diagnosed with sepsis. The Franklinton man had been treated in the intensivecare unit at Mount Carmel West until May 27, when he was moved to another unit. His condition worsened and he was returned to the ICU on May 28, when he came under the care of Husel, according to a lawsuit.
Allen’s widow, Barbara Allen, filed the lawsuit against Husel, Mount Carmel, an unknown pharmacist and nurse Jacob Deemer, of Grove City, who, the lawsuit claims, administered the medication.
Bellisari, 69, of the West Side, died May 10, 2015, after being given an excessive 1,000-microgram dose of fentanyl, according to Leeseberg. Bellisari, who was suffering from multiple health problems, was an auxiliary nun whose family had taken her to Mount Carmel West in April because it was a Roman Catholic hospital.
In a statement released through Leeseberg’s office, Bellisari’s family said they believed Mount Carmel would allow her life to end naturally and were shocked and confused by the news that her death was possibly the result of a fatal drug overdose.
The lawsuit filed by Bellisari’s brother said she was given the medication at 11:32 p.m. on May 10 and died eight minutes later. The suit names the health system, Husel, pharmacist Nathan Kochheiser of Lexington, in Richland County, and nurse Trisa Sauber of Hilliard.