A New York City physician faces four to nine years in prison after pleading guilty Aug. 13 to second-degree manslaughter for writing prescriptions for a powerful narcotic that led to a patient's death from overdose, according to a press release from New York Attorney General Letitia James.
As part of his guilty plea, Barry S. Sloan, DO, admitted he issued two prescriptions for fentanyl to a 36-year-old patient in August 2014 without any medical justification. The patient filled the prescriptions four days after they were issued and died the next morning from a fentanyl overdose.
Dr. Sloan also admitted to issuing prescriptions for controlled substances to four other patients without medical justification and providing false information to a Medicaid managed care company.
"Doctors take an oath to heal, not harm people," Ms. James said in a press release. "With a raging opioid crisis, it is unconscionable that a doctor would recklessly endanger lives by providing fentanyl to healthy patients."
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