On Feb 5, 2016, a judge in a California Court sentenced Dr. Hsiu Tseng to life in prison for 30 years for the involuntary murder of her patients who totalled 3 in number. Her patients had according to the District Attorney overdosed on the prescriptions that she wrote.
When Dr. Tseng joined Rowland Clinic in California in 2007, little did she know that it would be the last place she would ever practice in her professison. On her short-lived career at Rowland Clinic, she wrote prescriptions for more than 27,000 patients. This translated to about 25 patients in a day. But it’s prescriptions that she wrote to three of her patients that eventually landed her in trouble.
In 2012, Mrs. Tseng was convicted of second-degree murder of Vu Nguyen from Lake Forest, Joey Rovero, an Arizona State University student and Steven Ogle, of Palm Desert. Shortly after being convicted of these acts, she surrendered her practising certificate and has attributed her personal problems, depression and difficulties juggling children and work to have primarily interfered with her abilities as a doctor
On top of these counts, the jury also found her guilty of on the counts of illegal prescriptions. Amongst other things Mrs. Tseng was accused of being enterprise oriented and overlooking the dangers, she posed on illegal prescriptions. According to the IRA return, her office made $5 million between 2007 and 2010
In her defence, she said she believed that her patient’s conducts were beyond her control as she confessed to having never investigated whether her practices played a role in the death of her patients as indicated by Marissa (2016). The doctor further indicated that she was not trained in pain and addiction management, (Marissa 2016). Her legal counsel stated that she was naïve to prescribe so many prescription and she never thought that her patients would abuse them.
This Case is critical in the medical profession in the United States since it is the first instance that a doctor has found himself/herself on the dock due to overprescribing. These have possible consequences of being used as precedence in many other similar cases. It is also likely to open up a Pandora’s Box for many more cases.
This case is not an isolated one, especially in the US. In September 2015, a doctor was acquitted of first-degree murder in Florida (Spine Review, 2015). Another doctor to have been convicted is the late Michael Jackson’s personal physician, Dr. Conrad Murray, who was found guilty for involuntary manslaughter of the late pop star.
This conviction of Dr. Tseng is likely to usher a new precarious reality according to some experts. This cases may however may have dire consequences as doctors will exercise restraint in the treatment of individuals with potent painkillers as indicated by Dahl (2012). As a result, some doctors might refuse to treat chronically ill patients for the fear of similar lawsuits.
A doctor who acts negligently while writing a prescription or writes illegal prescriptions should be denied the rights to practice. It takes just a onetime wrong or unlawful prescription to kill or harm a patient. We have heard so many cases of doctors overstepping their boundaries which always ends up tragically. In the US for instance drugs related deaths have surpassed road accidents to be number one unnatural killer (CBS News, 2016). This still standing convicting Dr. Tseng was wrongful.
Doctors take the vow to protect people’s lives. They also work for long hours and depressing moments just like everybody else. Now and then will go an extra mile to take care of an ailing person. Convicting her of murder means that we overlook all the right deeds and prosecuting her for the few cases where she went wrong.
References
Marisa, G. (2016, February) Doctor convicted of murder for patients' drug overdoses gets 30 years to life in prison. Retrieved (2016, April). http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-lndoctor-murder-overdose-drugs-sentencing-20160205-story.html
CBS/AP (2016, February) Calif. Doctor sentenced for a prescription that left three dead. Retrieved (2016, April). http://www.cbsnews.com/news/doctor-hsiu-ying-lisa-tseng-sentenced-for-painkiller-prescriptions-that-left-three-dead/
Julia Dahl (March 2012) Doctors and drugs: Is it murder when a patient ODs? Retrieved (2016, April). http://www.cbsnews.com/news/doctors-and-drugs-is-it-murder-when-a-patient-ods/
