Patient dies because of fentanyl patch

Patient dies of overdose of a fentanyl patch

07/30/2013

Often it is addicts who use fentanyl patches for self-medication to substitute their drug addiction. However, there are also numerous reports that people have died after improper application of the fentanyl patch. In Bavaria, a 46-year-old entrepreneur from Bremen has now died of the side effects of the pain plaster. An on-call doctor had prescribed the patient a fentanyl patch against the complaints of a lumbago. According to previous findings, the patient died after only five days of oxygen deficiency in the brain.

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid and main component of the pain patch. In Germany, the active ingredient is covered by the Narcotic Law (BTM) and may therefore only be prescribed by doctors under certain legal regulations.

The travel entrepreneur G.T. (Name changed) was an exhibitor visiting a leisure fair in the Bavarian Riem. When he wanted to break down the stand, he suffered a great pain from a pinched nerve or lumbago. Arriving at the hotel, the back pain increased and movements were hardly possible. As the pain worsened during the night, the man called his wife in Bremen. She found a local doctor who came to the hotel room at about 3 o'clock. The 56-year-old doctor injected the man with morphine. In addition, the physician gave the patient, who could not move at all, some pain medications such as diazepam and oxycodone tablets and a fentanyl patch. Exactly that plaster is however under the narcotics law was according to accusation medically not necessary. In addition, the dosage of the agent in the patch with 100 micrograms per hour was clearly too high, argued the prosecutor.

The next day, a hotel employee found the entrepreneur almost lifeless in the hotel bed. The man had only gasped for air, the witness said in his statement. A summoned emergency doctor successfully initiated resuscitation and was able to bring T. back to life. Subsequently, T. was spent in the Bogenhausener clinic. Once there, the doctors diagnosed a serious brain damage due to lack of oxygen. A few days later, the man died in the hospital.

Before the man was admitted to the hospital, the ambulance doctor, in consultation with the on-call doctor, removed the pain patch that was still attached to the back of the patient. But by that time it was already too late. The drug fentanyl had already penetrated into overdose in the organism.

In court, the accused physician said he had not attached the pain patch to the patient. Rather, he had told the patient that he should use the patch only after consultation. For this reason, he gave the patient his private telephone number. The man had no longer reported by phone and obviously attached the plaster itself. Whether the man suffered from previous illnesses, the doctor was not known. The wife testified that her husband had only occasionally suffered from dizziness.

The court considered it proved that the on-call doctor „against the rules of medical art“ have violated. For this reason, he now has to pay 6000 euros penalty. However, the approbation will not be denied. (Sb)