SPOKANE, WA – A Whitman County man has filed a federal negligence and wrongful death lawsuit against a Palouse hospital, one of its clinics, and two of its employees for what he claims was the overprescribing of medication for his wife of nearly 27 years. Susan Cox, who was 54-years-old at the time of her death last August, allegedly died after being found unconscious following an overdose. (Read the complaint below)
Mark Cox filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington on behalf of himself and her adult stepdaughter claiming medical negligence by Dr. Patricia Marciano, Physician’s Assistant Todd Bledsoe, Gritman Medical Center, and Gritman d/b/a Moscow Family Medicine.
Through his attorney, Mary Schultz, Cox also demanded a jury trial.
The lawsuit claims the defendants “placed Susan Cox on an ongoing prescriptive medication treatment program, and directed her treatment with prescription medication” since at least 2016 for reported lumbar and cervical pain.
“During these times, Defendants were aware that Susan Cox had periods of alcohol abuse and was susceptible to abuse of prescription medications,” according to court documents, adding that the combination included an opioid cough syrup, opioid pain medications, a benzodiazepine, a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug,
“The level and duration of Defendants’ treatment prescribed and directed caused addiction which became evident, and was not addressed by defendants, who continued prescribing and directing more and more such treatment,” the lawsuit says.
In addition, the lawsuit claims that the defendants intended to increase the level of a [benzodiazepine] prescription but were notified by Cox’s insurer that they would no longer allow prescriptions for narcotic pain medicines plus benzodiazepines if they were already prescribing and directing “more than one such prescription, and they were already doing so, as Susan Cox was already being prescribed diazepam.”
The lawsuit claims that by May 2022, Cox was displaying and experiencing “cognitive difficulty, including confusion,” which resulted in her being fired from a cashier job. During this time, her husband had “repeatedly contacted Defendants and his wife[‘s]…pharmacy to express his concerns about the level of prescription medications his wife was being prescribed and directed to take, but providers would not speak to him because of Washington’s laws regarding [health] care information protection.”
He also reportedly told his wife multiple times that she was being harmed by the prescription medications she was directed to take; “but Susan Cox understood from Defendants that these prescriptions were correct, proper, and necessary, and were to be taken as prescribed.”
By August 2, 2022, the lawsuit says Cox’s medical providers were aware that she was “falling down, falling out of bed, and on that date, Defendants observed for themselves and noted in Susan Cox’s chart: Feels confused and out of it. Repeating herself. On exam today she seemed slightly confused and kept repeating herself. She appeared dazed.”
The lawsuit claims that despite this notation, the medical provider(s) allegedly increased her prescription medications, “now adding and directing her to take gabapentin (100 mg capsule three times a day increasing to two capsules three times a day after one week) and sertraline (Zoloft), one tablet per day, in concert with her diazepam, oxycodone acetaminophen, propranolol, and Celebrex.”
On August 15, 2022, while at home and in bed, Cox became unresponsive and died. Schultz says it is “perplexing” how this happened.
Cox’s death was “caused by brain swelling, and excess fluid in and around the lungs, which are commonly seen in the setting of [a] drug overdose,” the lawsuit says.
“Susan Cox’s cause of death was determined to be “the toxic effects of multiple drugs (oxycodone, sertraline, gabapentin, diazepam),” hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy, pulmonary edema, and aspiration pneumonia,” according to the lawsuit. Her autopsy, with toxicology, was performed in Spokane County at the request of the Whitman County coroner.
Schultz was asked about the public’s often typical response that should have known the dangers of all of the medications.
The lawsuit says the defendants “failed to inform Susan Cox of the material facts of, or facts relating to, her treatment that included multiple drugs” and this led to her fatal overdose. “Susan Cox consented to the treatment and directives prescribed her without being aware of or fully informed of such material fact or facts.”
Schultz adds that the pharmacy which Cox used to fill her prescriptions should also hold some responsibility, but it is not that simple.
She says there are a lot of dynamics at play in regard to prescribing prescription medications.
Schultz says this could happen to anyone who takes these medications.
KOZE News reached out to Gritman Medical Center for comment. A spokesman says they can’t comment on pending litigation.
Read the Complaint here: WrongfulDeathCase020923
Attorney Mary Schultz, courtesy of https://www.maryschultzlaw.com/
