A family has won $20 million in damages against an imprisoned doctor who killed up to 13 people by over-prescribing opioid pain medication.
William Martin Valuck, 76, was sentenced to eight years in prison after pleading guilty to eight counts of second-degree murder in August 2014. Five more deaths were subsequently linked to his grossly irresponsible prescribing.
Mary Degiusti sued Valuck for damages over the death of her daughter, Jennifer Zimmerman, who died of an overdose at the age of 34 just days after he had prescribed her 450 pills.
William Martin Valuck, 76, was sentenced to eight years in prison after pleading guilty to eight counts of second-degree murder in August 2014
The grieving mother and grandmother to Degiusti’s child said while she expected Valuck to only be able to pay a fraction of the payout she hoped it would frighten over unscrupulous doctors.
‘I just hope that no family has to go through this, and that every doctor will think before doing something like this,’ she told NewsOK.
Zimmerman had been a patient of Valuck’s for two years when he handed her the monster prescription of two opioid-based painkillers, hydrocodone and oxycodone.
This was meant to last one month – even though just 15 of these pills at their lowest strength taken each day would still greatly exceed safe prescribing guidelines.
Oklahoma County District Court Judge Patricia Parrish ordered Valuck to pay $10 million in wrongful death damages, and the same amount again in punitive damages.
Zimmerman’s attorney accepted that the chances of collecting the total from Valuck was ‘minimal’, particularly after the doctor announced he had already spent most of his money.
The doctor now faces at least five more medical negligence lawsuits.
Investigators have said Valuck prescribed more controlled narcotic drugs than any other physician in the state, sometimes as many as 600 pills at a time.
Mary Degiusti sued Valuck (pictured in 2014) over the death of her daughter, Jennifer Zimmerman, who died of an overdose at the age of 34 after he had prescribed her 450 pills
He had originally faced first-degree murder charges, which carry up to life in prison.
Nearly two dozen of the victims’ relatives attended his trial in 2014, including some who spoke to the court ahead of Valuck’s plea.
James Lambert, whose daughter Victoria Lambert died from a drug overdose, said her death should send a message to physicians to prescribe such narcotics responsibly.
He said: ‘Make sure they know what they’re doing when they dispense medication. That way we don’t have to go through this again.’
Stephanie Beesley, whose husband Paul Beesley died from a drug overdose, tearfully described his long-term fight with drug addiction as a large color portrait of him was displayed in the courtroom.
‘He had a part in his own death,’ she said, but added: ‘I don’t understand the manner in which the medications were prescribed.’
Michael Green, the brother of drug overdose victim Christina Green, said he felt no sympathy for Valuck.
Valuck (pictured in an undated mug shot) had originally faced first-degree murder charges, which carry up to life in prison
‘He knew the chance he was taking,’ Mr Green said. ‘Eight years doesn’t seem just to me. He knew this was unethical.’
First Assistant District Attorney Scott Rowland said the case should serve as a warning for physicians not to place financial gain ahead of their professional responsibility.
Valuck also prescribed as alprazolam, Valium and Soma.
Federal and state authorities began investigating Valuck in February 2012, after being called by pharmacies and patients’ relatives concerned about the amount of narcotics he was prescribing.
Investigators later ‘saw vanloads’ of patients pull up at Valuck’s pain management clinic in south Oklahoma City, where the parking lot was always full of vehicles, US DEA agent Mary Surovec testified during a hearing in April 2014.
Some pharmacies even faxed to authorities copies of prescriptions Valuck had written that the pharmacies refused to fill.
Surovec said DEA officials were concerned that some of the controlled drugs Valuck was prescribing in large quantities were being funneled into illegal markets and sold on the street.
She said Valuck accepted only cash for office visits by patients and would not bill health insurers.
After charges were filed in January, Valuck’s patient files were seized and later examined by another osteopathic physician, Dr. Arthur Douglas Beacham III, who testified that drugs were prescribed by Valuck although there was no record that patients were examined to determine if the drugs were actually needed.
He said patient documentation, including assessments of patient complaints, was inadequate and that in some cases there was no documentation that Valuck even saw the patient on the day he wrote a prescriptions.