UH: Doctors did not cause fatal overdose

University Hospitals is asking a judge to dismiss a wrongful death lawsuit over a Wickliffe man’s overdose.

University Hospitals is asking a Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court judge to dismiss a wrongful death lawsuit over a Wickliffe man’s overdose from prescribed medications.

David Skisano, a divorced father of one son, died suddenly on June 28, 2015, at the age of 66 while under the care of UH Bedford Medical Center Doctors Ghassan Haddad and Haitham Azem.

The lawsuit was filed Dec. 22 by attorney Francis Sweeney Jr. on behalf of Skisano’s estate, which seeks unspecified damages from the Shaker Heights-based hospital, UH Bedford Medical Center and the two doctors.

Skisano first sought treatment at UH in 2005 for various pain-related complaints.

The doctors negligently prescribed him hydrocodone and Xanax for a decade with no specific diagnosis until his death in 2015 —despite the fact they were aware he had issues with substance abuse and mental illness, and had been referred to addiction rehabilitation, according to the suit.

However, UH attorney Jane F. Warner recently filed an answer to the suit, denying the allegations and stating that the estate is not entitled to any form of relief.

“Defendants ... specifically deny that (the doctors) prescribed narcotics and controlled substances to (Skisano) for the purposes of increasing revenue,” Warner stated.

She added that the incident was because of Skisano’s “own underlying disease, or an idiosyncratic or allergic reaction to the treatment and/or disease in question.”

In addition, the defendants had no reason to anticipate Skisano’s death and are not responsible, Warner said in her response.

The hospital is asking Judge Kelly Ann Gallagher to order the estate to pay their attorney fees and other legal costs to defend the action.

The lawsuit alleges that the hospital and its doctors broke the rules for reasonable prescribing and “contributed to the epidemic of overprescribing, dispensing and use of narcotics and controlled substances with deadly consequences.”

Sweeney also accused University Hospitals of turning a “blind eye” to “overprescribers” like Haddad and Azem to “dramatically increase revenue” at the risk of patients.

Between 2007 and 2017, at least nine patients have died from opiate narcotic overdoses from medication prescribed by University Hospitals doctors, according to Sweeney.

The estate, via temporary administrator Kevin Lipman, also is seeking reimbursement for Skisano’s medical, funeral and burial expenses.

Sweeney filed a similar case last year against Lake Hospital System over a Parma man’s accidental drug overdose. That case is set for trial April 9 in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court.