Florida's Supreme Court ruled August 25 that a physician
could be sued for medical malpractice in the case of a patient's suicide.
The case originated in Sarasota County, Florida, after the
October 2008 suicide of 55-year-old wife and mother Jacqueline Granicz, who
hanged herself. Her husband, Robert, sued her family physician, Joseph S.
Chirillo Jr, MD, of Englewood, Florida, who was treating her for depression,
and Millennium Physician Group, for medical malpractice.
Jacqueline Granicz started taking the antidepressant
venlafaxine (Effexor, Pfizer) in 2005, but stopped taking it in 2008, according
to court records.
The records say she called Dr Chirillo's office the day
before she died and told his medical assistant that she had stopped taking the
drug because she thought it was causing side effects such as poor sleep and
mental strain, and also causing her to cry easily and have gastrointestinal
distress. She said she had not "felt right" since late June or July.
After reading the assistant's note, Dr Chirillo changed the
patient's prescription from venlafaxine to a different antidepressant,
escitalopram (Lexapro, Forest Laboratories), and didn't schedule an appointment
but said she could pick up a sample of the drug and a prescription at his
office. She picked up the items that day and hanged herself the following day.
Granicz's husband then sued the physician and his medical
group, alleging the doctor had breached his duty and the suicide had resulted
from that breach.
According to court documents, allegations of breach of duty
including that he failed to recognize that she was experiencing a change in
symptoms, was depressed, and was seeking medical intervention; that Dr Chirillo
didn't speak with her directly; that he didn't refer her to a clinician trained
in management of depression; and that he failed to properly evaluate
escitalopram, an antidepressant known to cause suicidal ideation in some
patients
The doctor and his group filed for summary judgment saying
that, "Dr Chirillo owed no duty to prevent the decedent from committing an
unforeseeable suicide while she was not in his control."
The summary judgement was granted by the First District
Court of Appeal, but the decision was later reversed by the Second District
Court of Appeal that ruled in favor of Granicz. The Florida Supreme Court
ultimately ruled Thursday to confirm the decision of the Second District that
the case should proceed to trial.
Justice Peggy Quince said, in writing the opinion for the
court, "Although the inpatient duty to prevent suicide does not apply
here, there still existed a statutory duty…to treat the decedent in accordance
with the standard of care."
The Supreme Court ruled that the First District court in its
decision and the petitioners "in their initial brief outlined testimony
from the hearing on the motion for summary judgment which tended to show that
the decedent's suicide was not foreseeable. However, Granicz 1) pointed out that
Dr Chirillo knew that patients who stopped taking Effexor abruptly had an
increased risk for suicide, and 2) ultimately opined that stopping Effexor was
"a contributing factor" in the decedent's suicide. On this evidence,
"we approve the Second District's finding that there is a genuine issue of
material fact remaining as to proximate cause."…
Carolyn Stimel, PhD, executive director of the Florida
Psychological Association, told Medscape Medical News, "There's a fine
line between how you balance the standard of care with people's free will on an
outpatient basis."
She said the ruling points up several things, including that
the "vast majority of psychoactive medications at this point are being
prescribed by non-mental health trained physicians. More people get
antidepressants from their [general practitioner] than get it from their
psychiatrist because we have a shortage of psychiatrists."
She also said that people with depression are also often not
referred for therapy to psychologists.
"Presumably, if this person had been in therapy there
would have been somebody monitoring what was going on with their mental state
and also dealing with the issue that she had stopped taking her
medications."
Ultimately you can't
shove pills down someone's throat. The thought of doctors being responsible for
whether patients kill themselves or not — that's pretty chilling.
She says doctors have a legitimate question in asking what
you can do when a patient won't take medications.
The problem was quantified in a previous Medscape Medical
News story that said that one in five patients prescribed antidepressants stop
taking them without telling their doctor.
"Ultimately you can't shove pills down someone's
throat," Dr Stimel said. "The thought of doctors being responsible
for whether patients kill themselves or not — that's pretty chilling."
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/868053
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