2 Investigators: Patient Was Flooded With Painkillers Before His Death
(CBS) -- A doctor allegedly prescribed 600 pain pills for a patient in the course of two weeks. The patient's family says it helped enable an addiction that ended in tragedy.
CBS 2's Pam Zekman reports.
The family has filed a lawsuit against two doctors and a pharmacy, alleging the drugs they prescribed and prescriptions they filled over five years ruined his life.
"It's unbelievable. I mean, it just overwhelmed me, and it made me angry," says Robert Bauer, the brother of William Bauer.
William Bauer was prescribed Hydrocodone -- generic for Vicodin -- for back pain and several other drugs for chronic lung problems.
His prescribing physician is Dr. Robert Raines.
"What he said was, 'Mr. Bauer, I don't want to offend you or make you feel bad, but your brother is a lot sicker than you think,'" Dr. Raines told Robert Bauer, he says.
Through the years William Bauer was raced to the emergency room many times for overdoses and other medical complications, and then in 2013, "he died at the kitchen table drinking a cup of coffee," says Jacqueline Bauer-Ward, the patient's sister.
Bauer died from multiple lung ailments, but Methadone, prescribed by Dr. Harold McGrath to wean him off other painkillers, was a contributing factor.
Bauer's brother and sister are suing Dr. Raines, Dr. McGrath, and the hospital pharmacy that filled many of the prescriptions for enabling his addiction which they say contributed to his death.
Robert Bauer says he wants Dr. Raines to explain: "Why would you give anybody this amount of medication?"
Dr. Raines denied over-prescribing pain medication for William Bauer. He tells CBS 2 the 3,800 Vicodin and 12,300 Vicodin the Bauers concluded their brother was given in 2008 and 2009 was "out of whack" and speculated that Bauer may have forged some prescriptions in order to get more drugs.
He defends his other prescriptions for Vicodin, saying he never knowingly prescribed more than 10 a day, but conceded he knew William Bauer was taking excessive amounts of the drug. He says he tried to counsel him not to but Bauer was "addicted to controlling his pain."
A Christ Medical Center spokeswoman said they had no information about the case but "patient safety is always our top priority."
Karen Wolownik Albert is an addiction specialist. She never treated Bauer and has nothing to do with the lawsuit, but says proper monitoring of medication is essential.
"People look at pain killer as medicine, and they are, but in high doses they're killing people," she says.
If someone has a relative that seems to be addicted to these painkillers, she advises: "Don't wait … I would talk to that person's doctor, I would seek out specialized treatment facility like Gateway Foundation."
Bauer's sister says they say they are telling his story because "I do not want another person hurt or another family to suffer what we had to suffer."
The surviving siblings have filed complaints with the Illinois Department of Professional Regulation against the two doctors and with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency. Neither agency would comment on the status of the case.