At least five patients who died after receiving excessive doses of painkillers under a former Mount Carmel doctor's care might have lived if given proper treatment, health system officials confirmed for The Dispatch on Friday.

The five patients are among the nearly three dozen intensive-care patients who died after receiving the doses ordered by Dr. William Husel, system officials said. Reviews of medical histories, patient records and the care they received show that the five might have survived, according to Dr. Dan Roth, executive vice president and chief clinical officer for the Livonia, Michigan-based Trinity Health, Mount Carmel’s parent.

The health system had previously indicated that all of the patients were near death. On Friday, Roth described them as all being “critically ill."

An ongoing internal investigation also has revealed that an additional patient received one of the doses, said Ed Lamb, Mount Carmel president and chief executive. That brings the number of patients to 35, with 29 of those doses potentially fatal.

“I hope that as we continue to go down this road that the community understands how devastated we are about all of this,” Lamb said in an interview at Mount Carmel headquarters on the Far East Side. “And certainly we realize that we’ve lost the trust of our community, and we’re working on trying to do everything we can to rebuild that.”

>>Complete coverage: Find out more on this on-going investigation at Mount Carmel

Mount Carmel was notifying family members of the five patients Friday morning, Lamb said. Citing patient privacy laws, neither he nor Roth would publicly identify the patients or share details of their circumstances or care.

Husel, 43, of Liberty Township near Dublin, was fired in December, and officials have said he ordered excessive doses of pain medications dating to at least 2015, mostly at Mount Carmel West hospital in Franklinton, but once at Mount Carmel St. Ann’s hospital in Westerville.

Richard Blake, a Cleveland attorney who represents Husel, said he was not aware of which patients Mount Carmel was referring to with the Friday announcement.

He said "absolutely" that Husel did not perform mercy killings or intend to cause patient deaths.

Calls seeking comment have not been returned by Gregory Foliano, who represents Husel in the wrongful-death lawsuits.

The health system’s announcement follows inquiries made by The Dispatch to Mount Carmel officials about whether the medical conditions of several patients were as dire as first believed.

Two sources involved in the investigation told the newspaper that investigators were more closely scrutinizing at least five cases because they suspected their medical conditions were exaggerated or the doses of fentanyl prescribed by Husel were at least 500 micrograms, or both.

The sources asked not to be identified because the investigation is active and their positions prohibit them from discussing the matter publicly.

The 500-microgram level is borderline lethal and there is no medical reason to order such a large dose, the sources said. Some patients received 1,000 micrograms and one received as much as 2,000 micrograms, according to wrongful-death lawsuits filed in Franklin County Common Pleas Court and details in Ohio Department of Health inspection reports.

Lamb said Mount Carmel continues to review the records of all patients who died under Husel’s care. Roth said the number is in the hundreds.

>>View PDFs of the official statement from Mount Carmel and a timeline of events

The doctor’s license has been suspended, and Columbus police and the Franklin County prosecutor’s office are investigating whether criminal charges should be filed.

Blake, from the Cleveland office of the McDonald Hopkins law firm, has said he is reviewing records and working with the prosecutor's office.



Sources have told The Dispatch that no other hospital employee is currently under criminal investigation.

Gerry Leeseberg, a Columbus attorney who represents families of several patients who died under Husel’s care, said an attorney representing Mount Carmel told him that three of the five patients referenced in Friday's announcement are among those identified in the lawsuits he has filed.

“This corroborates what our own medical experts and nurses have told us, that the medical conditions of some of the patients were not grave or terminally ill,” Leeseberg said. “This confirms our suspicion that much of this was garbage in and garbage out by Dr. Husel and he was using this terminal diagnosis to justify his decisions.”

Leeseberg said his office’s medical staff is in the midst of reviewing 16 patient cases for clients and has so far concluded that at least five were not terminally ill.

Attorney Tim Mahler of Columbus, who is also among lawyers who have filed wrongful-death lawsuits, responded to the Friday announcement by saying, "this story keeps getting worse."

"We’ve been concerned throughout our investigation that there are victims who were not at the end of life," he said. "My heart goes out to the families receiving this horrible news."

Discovering that patients may have lived longer, whether that might be by 12 hours or three days, can increase mental anguish for families and further impact the loss they have experienced, said Columbus attorney David Shroyer, who also has filed lawsuits.

Neither he nor Mahler said clients they represent were contacted by Mount Carmel about the announcement.

Friday, the number of suits rose to at least 21 with the filing of two new complaints. Details of the new suits were not immediately available.

Mount Carmel also is investigating whether the proper process for determining patient prognoses, such as declaring them brain dead, was followed and whether families received a complete picture of loved one’s situations, Roth said.

He said such information, with a focus on patient wishes, is important in determining treatments.

“We want to make sure patients and loved ones have all the information about their prognosis and their treatment choices and what the realistic prognoses are so that they can make a fully informed decision,” he said. “That’s our obligation for these people, and it’s never more important than in situations when someone is critically ill.”

Roth said the internal investigation also has included a review of all patient deaths associated with high doses of opioids among all physicians, and only Husel's cases have been identified as problematic.

Also ongoing is a look at whether a process for reviewing patient deaths was followed and how to further improve that process, he said.

The Ohio Department of Health inspection reports indicate that many of the high doses were accessed through the use of emergency overrides that sidestepped warnings and the pre-approval from pharmacists generally required before medications are released from an automated dispensing system.

Husel used his authority, charm and medical pedigree as a former doctor at the Cleveland Clinic to deceive or convince nurses his decisions were sound, some current and former hospital staff said.

During its initial public announcement on Jan. 14, Mount Carmel said all patients' families had requested that lifesaving measures be stopped, but that the medication provided was beyond what was needed to provide comfort.

Along with the 29 patients who received potentially fatal doses, six patients were given excessive doses that likely did not cause their deaths, Mount Carmel officials have said.



The health system has said 14 nurses, six pharmacists and three others, including members of the management team, have been placed on paid administrative leave pending the investigation. A pharmacy executive was fired.

Mount Carmel officials have previously announced that the first formal report on Husel’s questionable care was received on Oct. 25, a second was received on Nov. 19 and a third on Nov. 21, the day Husel was removed from patient care.

Three patients died after the first complaint was received, including one who died after the second complaint, according to information from Mount Carmel officials, lawyers and inspection reports.

Mount Carmel has acknowledged the three deaths, apologized and said policy changes have been made to prevent such situations in the future.

Lamb and Roth said all changes have been made across Mount Carmel's sites, and some have been made elsewhere in Trinity Health, a Catholic health system that includes 94 hospitals.

“We have continued to put in place very, very important and very, very tight measures within the organization to ensure safety and to ensure, number one, that this never, ever happens again,” Lamb said Friday.

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