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(USGovernment-News.Com, September 19, 2014 ) Las Vegas, NV -- The drug Propofol is generally used as an anesthesia for patients going through a surgical procedure or being kept under sedation. When in the right hands, Propofol, and drugs like it, make it possible to treat critically injured patients and perform surgeries with as little pain and suffering as possible. But in the wrong hands, Propofol can be deadly.
Propofol is an anesthetic, which means its’ role in treatment or surgery is to put the patient in a deep sleep. The drug is fast acting, it can put an adult to sleep in less than a minute, but it is not an easy drug to administer, and in recent years has been tied to a few high profile deaths.
The tragic death of Michael Jackson in 2009 was eventually tied to a combination of drugs intended to help him sleep. The toxicology report showed “lethal levels of Propofol” in his blood.
More recently, the comedy legend Joan Rivers death may be linked to the administration of the drug Propofol, 81 year old Rivers allegedly went to the clinic for a routine endoscopy procedure. She slipped into arrest after her procedure.
Rivers deteriorating condition was overlooked until the end of the procedure, a staff member of the clinic noticed her oxygen levels crashing. While it has not been absolutely determined that her deteriorating oxygen levels were caused by Propofol, it is widely known that Propofol has to be carefully monitored not only during the injection, but as well as through the procedure and recovery process. If the patient is not carefully monitored, the oxygen levels could fall and the risk of respiratory arrest is always a factor.
Edward M Bernstein and Associates represented a client, Michael Washington, who died at the age of 73 from incurable liver disease. His disease was caused by an outbreak at the Endoscopy Clinic of Southern Nevada. The 2007 hepatitis C outbreak is considered one of the largest in our countries history, and it all began with a negligent clinic. This resulted in a jury verdict of $104,000,000. The owner of the clinic, Dipak Desai, was sentenced to life in prison, and many of his employees including one anesthetist, were sentenced to jail time as well. For addition information email, contact@EdBernstein.com
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