Jury Awards $17.6 Million Medical Malpractice Verdict for Overprescribing Opioid Pain Killers

Jury Awards $17.6 Million Medical Malpractice Verdict for Overprescribing Opioid Pain KillersBrian and Michelle Koon won a $17.6 million medical malpractice lawsuit against Dr. Henry D. Walden and St. Louis University for overprescribing opioid pain medication. Koon was a city parks employee who went to see Dr. Walden for back pain. Dr. Walden prescribed three different kinds of opioids: Oxycontin, Vicodin and Oxycodone. Koon became addicted, went to rehab and became estranged from his wife and daughter because of his drug use.

Between 2008 and 2012, Dr. Walden had prescribed more than 37,000 pain pills according to a story in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Koon’s expert witness, Dr. Paul Genecin, said that the doses of pills were “colossal and reckless.” The couple was in the process of divorcing and declined to comment about the verdict.

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