"doctor accused of killing 300 patients to free up beds"

[aaronjw]

The intent isn't clear here.

 

It's very difficult to prove intent for the majority of cases (eg: I increased his morphine because he seemed in extreme pain but unfortunately the dose was too high and killed him) but would imagine less difficult to prove a pattern of neglect and incompetency (what medical reason, based on this patient and the diagnostic values did they have to administer muscle relaxers while decreasing oxygen supply?).

 

No sure what the case in question was but is the person had ARDS, my understanding is that administration of muscle relaxers will decrease the body's demand for oxygen (a good thing but coupled with the reduction of oxygen seems counter intuitive?

[A-Stark]

It's very difficult to prove intent for the majority of cases (eg: I increased his morphine because he seemed in extreme pain but unfortunately the dose was too high and killed him) but would imagine less difficult to prove a pattern of neglect and incompetency (what medical reason, based on this patient and the diagnostic values did they have to administer muscle relaxers while decreasing oxygen supply?).

 

In end-of-life circumstances you might use escalating morphine doses for "dyspnea" along with midazolam for "agitation", but at any other time giving someone a lethal dose of morphine unintentionally would be negligence, particularly in the absence of naloxone use or ventilation.

 

No sure what the case in question was but is the person had ARDS, my understanding is that administration of muscle relaxers will decrease the body's demand for oxygen (a good thing but coupled with the reduction of oxygen seems counter intuitive?

 

Reducing oxygen delivery makes no sense, but the benefit of muscle relaxers in ARDS comes from reducing ventilator dys-synchrony. Can't imagine how that would apply to this case.