for professional standards and basic patient safety were at the extreme level in this case. This was not simple human error that we all know occurs in medicine and which, while tragic, can only be diminished and not totally prevented. This was crass criminal negligence that any trained in medicine would acknowledge (as did the judge/jury) as negligent homicide.
For a cardiologist to use this potent anesthetic outside the confines of a hospital or fully equipped/fully staffed medical clinic with professionals monitoring 24/7 for a potential adverse reaction to this drug has left those with the medical knowledge to understand the issue simply incredulous. This wasn't ignorance. It could not be "simple ignorance/negligence" with a cardiologist-- unless he went through his entire career failing to understand even the basics of cardio-pulmonary physiology and the most basic concepts of "standard of care" medicine.
He knew the risks. He knew how inappropriate and grotesquely dangerous this was. He knew he was being recruited to do so with a very lucrative salary precisely because virtually NO ONE else would have. This drug is used in veterinary medicine as well and I can assure you that use with precisely such a lack of precautions resulting in death of the animal would likewise result in a veterinarian's loss of license and civil liability. When I say this, I mean ANY veterinarian and not limited to a specialist veterinary cardiologist professional. I hope that drives home to you exactly how intensely inappropriate this action was for this physician to do and why any with medical background are so appalled.
I'm glad he has some redeeming aspects to his earlier career and as a compassionate person-- in terms of his care of your father. I remember you defending him, based on this, when the allegations first began to be directed at this doctor, shortly after MJ's death. I realize you don't want to believe that someone who did a kindness for your father could be guilty of such crass indifference to the life of another, but that is the fact. I can only hope he NEVER practices again, unless at the level of a cardiac physician assistant--under the extreme supervision of a team of other physicians. What he did is (in medicine) as close as it comes to unforgivable.
= new reply since forum marked as read