Utah battles trial backlash
Hospice and palliative care advocates in Utah fear that the murder conviction of a local psychiatrist, whose use of morphine contributed to the death of five patients, will cause physicians to think twice about using pain management drugs.
In July, Robert Weitzel, 44, was convicted of second-degree felony manslaughter in connection with the deaths of two patients and misdemeanor negligent homicide for the deaths of three other patients. All five were elderly patients suffering from dementia; they died between December 1995 and January 1996. A jury agreed with prosecutors who argued Weitzel recklessly or negligently caused the patients’ deaths because he was inattentive in his care while ordering excessive doses of medication, including morphine.
Protecting end-of-life image
As a result, the medical community and state medical licensing officials responded by saying they hoped the Weitzel case wouldn’t have a chilling effect on physicians and their patients. Mark Foote, chairman of the Utah Physicians Licensing Board and member of The Partnership to Improve End-of-Life Care in Utah, said the public should rest assured that the "vast, vast majority" of physicians provide quality end-of-life care.
"If anything, there’s probably too little comfort care provided," Foote told the Deseret News in Salt Lake City.
In a letter to the newspaper, an area pain and palliative care specialist and a hospice medical director expressed similar concerns.
"[Weitzel] alleged he was providing comfort care by giving the patients morphine injections as well as other medications. The jury found his care inappropriate and criminal," the specialist wrote.
"The unfortunate fact is that pain is an underdiagnosed and undertreated condition, not only in Utah, but across the United States. Numerous studies that have shown this to be true attribute the problem to medical professionals, who are often poorly trained in pain management, and to patients, who fear the side effects of medications, underreport their pain, or are unwilling to take prescribed medications," he wrote. "The Weitzel case has compounded the situation."
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