An updated lawsuit in the death of a patient who received too much pain medication at Mount Carmel West in Columbus, Ohio, says the nurse who administered the medication later became the wife of the physician who ordered it, according to The Columbus Dispatch.
In the lawsuit, Mariah Baird is accused of administering a lethal dose of fentanyl to 65-year-old Jan Thomas on March 1, 2015, "knowing that such dose was grossly inappropriate."
The updated complaint naming Ms. Baird was filed Feb. 5 in Franklin County Common Pleas Court, according to the attorney representing Ms. Thomas' son.
Ms. Baird has been married to William Husel, MD, since October 2017. Dr. Husel, a former physician at Mount Carmel Health System, is at the center of an investigation into 34 near-death patients who were given excessive painkiller doses. The doses were all ordered by Dr. Husel and were likely fatal in 28 of those cases, hospital officials said.
Dr. Husel, whom Mount Carmel fired Dec. 5, was suspended from the Ohio Medicaid program, and the State Medical Board of Ohio suspended his license in January.
Twenty-three Mount Carmel employees have been placed on leave amid the investigations, including pharmacists and nurses.
CMS has notified Mount Carmel that the two hospitals involved in the investigation of patient deaths — Mount Carmel West and Mount Carmel St. Ann's in Westerville — could lose Medicare funding due to serious pharmaceutical services deficiencies.