68 Prescription Drug Fatal Overdoses at Kansas Medical Clinic - New Allegations

The prescription drug manipulation case out of Haysville, Kansas includes wrongful death, allegations of fatal prescription medication overdose, money laundering, and moneymaking conspiracy, and it keeps growing. With 9 new patient deaths included in the new federal indictment, the Kansas physician and his wife Linda, who is a nurse at the Schneider's medical clinic, are now potentially being connected by the government indictment to 68 fatal overdoses resulting from illegal prescription writing. The accusation is that Stephen and Linda Schneider and unnamed others schemed to illegally dispense prescription drugs in an effort to defraud patients and health insurance programs at their clinic. Stephen and Linda Schneider are now directly accused of contributing to the deaths of 21 patients.

The case was set for March 22nd, but the federal judge in the case has advised the defense lawyers to address new issues in the latest indictment and respond to outstanding motions so that a new trial date can be scheduled. The defense attorney is claiming that the indictment is overly broad, attempting to hold his physician and wife clients responsible for patient deaths that including suicides as well as deaths that happened while the doctor and his wife were already in prison. "We believe after we get a jury to actually hear the facts surrounding the allegations we trust a jury is going to come to the right decision." said Defense attorney Lawrence Williamson. The U.S. Attorney's office has only said that "the government's case will be explained in full during trial."

According to the indictment, the Schneider's clinic was essentially a dangerous medical disaster area: patients were given prescription drug refills after previously overdosing on those same prescription drugs; inexperienced PA's (physician assistants) were provided insufficient supervision; and their were often missing or incomplete patient medical records.

In one of the more alarming and sinister allegations in the case, it is alleged that that the physician would leave signed prescription pads blank and his wife would forge the doctor's signature on some prescriptions. It is claimed that the clinic's patients who died from prescription drug overdoses during 2002-2007 comprised 18% of all prescription medication overdose fatalities in Sedgwick county and its surrounding communities.  

One death included in the indictment involves a 52-year old amputee whose last clinic visit occurred in 2008 while the the doctor and his wife were imprisoned. According to the autopsy, his death resulted from taking a combination of the prescription medication Oxycodone at the same time as a prescription muscle relaxant. 

People like to believe that their medical treatment and prescriptions will restore their health and most of the time this is a reality. Unfortunately, however, cases of prescription drug manipulation for profit resulting in wrongful death are more common than we would like to think, and can result in medical injury and even wrongful death on a scale of epic proportions relative to individual instances of medical negligence and malpractice. For instance, Kansas City area residents will remember the epic prescription drug case from 2001. In that case, a local pharmacist who owned and operated two pharmacies - Robert Courtney - was accused of diluting thousands of anti-cancer prescription medications for several years during the 1990's, and he ultimately admitted to diluting anti-cancer prescription drugs. His goal was to make more profit. Pharmaceutical fraud criminal convictions and 300 civil lawsuits for fraud and wrongful death in Kansas City arose out of that conduct.        

It may be much more difficult to detect dangerous prescription drug errors when intentional rather than negligent conduct is involved. After all, prescription drug mistakes are by their nature accidental whereas intentional prescription manipulation often involves covered tracks. Nevertheless, patient vigilance and an understanding of the process of filling a prescription drug can protect patients against prescription medical errors and prescription drug medical negligence, and that same vigilance can also protect them from harm by helping to disclose intentional prescription drug manipulation. Moreover, medical mistake and medical negligence is far more often the cause of prescription drug fatalities than intentional conduct, and those errors can often be prevented when the patient participates in their own care. The lesson here is not to be afraid of your healthcare but rather to take several important precautions. Be proactive in your healthcare, be alert, use caution, be inquisitive, and ask questions at every step during your medical treatment and medical care.