Dr William Husel verdict: Doc found NOT GUILTY of killing 14 patients after being accused of overprescribing fentanyl

20.04.2022 17:29

TheSun.co.uk

AN OHIO doctor has been found NOT GUILTY after being accused of administering deadly doses of fentanyl to terminally ill patients. Dr William Husel was on trial for 14 counts of murder as prosecutors said he killed patients under his care as an ICU physician in Cincinnati. Prosecutors alleged that Husel had ordered potentially lethal […]

AN OHIO doctor has been found NOT GUILTY after being accused of administering deadly doses of fentanyl to terminally ill patients.

Dr William Husel was on trial for 14 counts of murder as prosecutors said he killed patients under his care as an ICU physician in Cincinnati.

Jurors found Husel not guilty for the 14 counts of murder[/caption]

Prosecutors said Husel killed patients under his care as an ICU physician

Prosecutors alleged that Husel had ordered potentially lethal amounts of fentanyl and other drugs to ICU patients from 2015 to 2018.

A jury made up of seven women and five men found Husel not guilty on Wednesday after roughly six days of deliberations.

Husel, 46, was originally indicted on 25 counts of murder in 2019, but 11 of the 25 counts were dismissed at the prosecutors’ request before the trial started in January.

The case was reportedly limited to patients that were “overprescribed” fentanyl — receiving 500 micrograms or more before their deaths.

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Husel’s lawyer, Jose Baez, said during the trial that his client was simply trying to minimize his patients’ pain as they died and that the Cincinnati hospital didn’t impose limits on fentanyl dosages.

Baez also claimed that Husel’s patients died from being taken off of ventilators.

“There is no such thing as a medical murder case,” Baez said in his opening arguments, according to the Daily Beast.

“This is not a murder case, and it’s far from it.

“William Husel was exercising compassion to his patients and tried to free them of pain and let their last moments on Earth be ones of peace.”

Around 53 witnesses reportedly testified against Husel, including nurses and pharmacists who previously worked with him as well as victims’ family members.

Husel, who rejected a plea deal in February, had been facing the possibility of life in prison for the 14 counts of murder.

WIFE’S INVOLVEMENT

Husel’s wife, nurse Mariah Baird, was in attendance throughout the trial, despite being named in a wrongful-death lawsuit filed by one victim’s family.

Baird administered an 800 microgram dose of fentanyl to 65-year-old Jan Thomas in 2015 on Husel’s orders, medical records say.

Thomas, who had been having a multi-embolic stroke, died less than an hour later.

Thomas’s family filed the lawsuit in 2019, claiming that Husel was to blame for the woman’s death.

The doctor was fired from Mount Carmel West Hospital in December 2018, and Franklin County Prosecutor & State Medical Board of Ohio were notified of his actions.

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The State Medical Board of Ohio suspended Husel’s license in 2019 before he turned himself in to be arrested and charged with murder.

Husel filed a defamation lawsuit against the Mount Carmel Medical System in December 2019, claiming that the “false accusations destroyed [his] life.”