Attorneys share details about fourth wrongful death suit against Mt. Carmel, doctorAttorne

Attorney David Shroyer said Wednesday that the family of Jan Thomas is still reeling. The family just filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Mt. Carmel, Dr. William Husel, nurses and pharmacists, claiming she was given a lethal dose of pain medication.

“They are not doing well, she left behind four boys,” said Shroyer, of Colley Shroyer & Abraham.

He said the Thomas family was prepared to take their mom off life support in 2015.

“She was prescribed by Dr. Husel 800 micrograms of fentanyl, and just to give you a perspective, 50 to 100 micrograms would be the appropriate dose for controlling pain after extubation.”

Jan Thomas (Courtesy: Attorney David Shroyer)

He said the family claims they did not agree to a dose of fentanyl.

“When you take someone off life support you never know what is going to happen for sure and the hastening of death through a lethal dose under Ohio law is murder,” said Shroyer.

He said fentanyl typically comes in 50 microgram amounts.

“In this particular case the nurse would have gone to the Pyxis machine, which is the machine that dispenses the medication, with the order from the pharmacy, would have put her fingerprint on the machine, would have touched the fentanyl,” said Shroyer. “The drawer opens up, the nurse would have then pulled out, in this case, to get to the 800 microgram level, 16 vials. She would have then taken the needle, put it into the vial and pulled out the two-milliliter solution. She would have done that 16 times to load up the needle.”

The Ohio Council for Home Care & Hospice told ABC6/FOX28 that while these cases didn’t happen in a hospice setting, there are general standards when it comes to pain management.

“We follow a particular path of treatment and from the facts that we had had, it didn’t seem like that course of treatment was followed,” said executive director Joe Russell.

Russell does have a safety message.

“It is really important for people to do their background on what type of provider they have and understand really does that provider have any issues,” he said.

In the meantime, Shroyer said more suits will likely be coming and that the Franklin County Prosecutor’s Office has been in contact.

“They have reached out and I believe doing a proper investigation,” he said, “and those kinds of investigations take time.”

A source said Columbus Police began their investigation into this in early December.

Dr. Husel’s license is still active at last check and the State Medical Board said no formal action has been taken yet.

When the lawsuit for Jan Thomas was filed Tuesday, Mount Carmel referred ABC6/FOX28 to a statement when Thomas’ suit was filed Tuesday, said they understand some families may consider legal action.

They also said they have apologized and are working to build additional safeguards.

Our team has either gotten no answer at Dr. Husel’s home ever since this story broke or “no comment” from his legal team.

Here are additional investigation details from Mt. Carmel’s website.

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Follow Haley Nelson on Facebook and Twitter: @HaleyWSYX6.