Doctors Pass-Along Prescription Deadly
A hospital misses an opportunity for a doctor's peer review, costing a man his life.
"Dr. Magnus Trelling" practiced at a 100-bed hospital in a desert state. A pharmacist contacted him to ask for pain medication for a friend who was going overseas. The pharmacist persuaded Trelling to call 30-year-old "Scott Primis," a former state trooper. Primis told Trelling that he had been recently hired by a private para-military services company and that he had been assigned to Afghanistan. Primis also said that he had a back problem and needed a six month's supply of pain pills so that he would be able to work overseas.
Trelling never examined Primis, but wrote him a prescription for 720 tablets of the pain medication Hydrocodone and 250 pills of Xanax, a tranquillizer for relieving anxiety.
Primis got the prescription Nov. 14, 2006. Two days later Primis' wife found him dead in the bedroom of their home. Investigators found 30 of the Xanax and 23 of the Hydrocodone missing. According to the medical examiner, Primis died of a heart attack.
Although the Medical Quality Assurance Commission reprimanded Trelling and fined him $3,500, his case never made it to internal peer review. He resigned from the hospital and did not renew his medical license when it came due a few months later.
Had Trelling's case come before the peer review committee or been reviewed by an external peer review organization, his license probably would have been revoked.
