A Pennsylvania physician is being sued for allegedly prescribing opioids in a reckless way that triggered a previous patient’s dependancy, in accordance to a civil lawsuit submitted before this month.
The health practitioner, Ajeeb John Titus, MD, has been accused by former affected individual Carl Graves of prescribing at least 7,400 oxycodone tablets and 1,700 amphetamine products involving 2016 and 2020, without ordering any diagnostic testing or attempting alternate treatment method choices, in accordance to the lawful submitting. Graves claims that Titus’ prescribing methods led specifically to a intense opioid dependancy.
Graves, who is joined in the lawsuit by his spouse, Sandi Jo, promises he was hospitalized quite a few situations right after receiving his last prescription from Titus on Sept. 21, 2020 — soon in advance of the physician was charged with various felony counts above alleged unlawful prescribing — and that he continued to involve professional medical treatment for his dependancy to the opioids prescribed by Titus, according to the lawful submitting.
In the courtroom document, Graves statements that Titus “acted wantonly, recklessly and negligently by prescribing intense quantities and combinations of unsafe and addictive narcotic medicines with out healthcare justification.”
The filing also notes that Titus failed to recognize the symptoms and signs of addiction, unsuccessful to wean Graves from the “deadly narcotic drugs” when he “knew or really should have recognised of the severe hazard of damage that would result,” and that Titus was “exclusively and exclusively” liable for the dependancy. As these kinds of, Graves and his spouse are demanding at minimum $100,000 in damages.
According to a report by Lehigh Valley Live information, Titus was arraigned in September 2020 on 21 counts of unlawful administration of a controlled material, 4 counts of dispensing a controlled compound to a drug-dependent particular person, three counts of drug possession with intent to deliver, and a person counts of drug possession and drug possession by misrepresentation. The report also pointed out that he was produced on bail shortly afterward.
The expenses have been similar to the very same opioid prescribing techniques named in the Graves lawsuit, but provided a 10-year time period, from January 2010 to January 2020, that associated a number of anonymous sufferers. Graves is not especially named in people prices.
Titus was billed simply because he recommended controlled substances — this sort of as oxycontin, oxycodone and fentanyl — “exterior his authorized and moral apply of medicine,” in accordance to a 2020 press release from Pennsylvania Condition Attorney Typical Josh Shapiro.
The push launch also said that Titus experienced failed to continue to keep accurate health-related information that would have supported the superior quantity of prescriptions for controlled substances, failed to carry out regime exams on his individuals, and charged that Titus would only question sufferers what types of medicines they preferred to be prescribed.
“Titus was dependable by his neighborhood to diligently and thoughtfully create prescriptions in his patients’ best interests,” Shapiro reported in the 2020 press release. “Alternatively, he made use of his entry to prescribe remarkably addictive medications that are fueling the opioid crisis in Pennsylvania, and for his personal acquire.”
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