A lawsuit alleges medical malpractice stemming from overprescribing opioids and prescribing opioids in combination with sedatives led to the 2017 death of a 65-year-old Dent County woman, according to a petition filed Monday in the 42nd Circuit Court.
The petition alleges Judy Gail Elliot-Headrick died Sept. 30, 2017, as a result of respiratory arrest due to an accidental overdose of oxycodone. It claims her primary care physician, Dr. Gregory Maynard, D.O., is liable for the death as well as his employer, Mercy Health and its subsidiaries.
Plaintiffs in the lawsuit are Elliot-Headrick’s daughters Tina Million and Amy Lunceford, as well as her surviving husband Lloyd Headrick, according to the petition.
The petition states Maynard was Elliot-Headrick’s primary care physician from at least 2011 to the time of her 2017 death. It claims she was initially seeking treatment of chronic back pain, headaches, seizures, shoulder pain and anxiety/depression. It states Elliot-Headrick was also later diagnosed with sleep apnea in March 2016.
The petition claims as a result of prescriptions written by Maynard, Elliot-Headrick’s daily morphine milligram equivalent intake rose from a level of 40 in October 2012 to 360 in September 2017. A coroner’s report cited by the petition states the cause of Elliot-Headrick’s death was determined to be respiratory arrest due to accidental overdose of oxycodone. It details a toxicology report conducted after Elliot-Headrick’s death revealed she had multiple prescription narcotics in her system, including phenobarbital, temazepam, alprazolam, oxycodone, fentanyl and metabolites. The lawsuit claims all those substances were prescribed by Maynard.
The petition claims the prescriptions continued to be written by Maynard despite Elliot-Headrick reporting they were ineffective for pain treatment and after she responded well to alternative pain treatments. A 2015 drug screen conducted by Maynard’s LPN is also cited as indicating Elliot-Headrick was not taking her medications properly. Other medical professionals are further described as advising her prescriptions be either tampered down or discontinued following Elliot-Headrick being hospitalized on multiple occasions from 2011 to 2017. The petition concludes Maynard’s physician notes are devoid of evidence he counseled Elliot-Headrick on the dangers of mixing opioids with sedatives or informed her about the risk of respiratory depression associated with taking opioids.
The petition was filed by attorneys Timothy M. McDuffey and Bradley D. Medcalf of the McDuffey Law Firm located in Osage Beach. Messages left with McDuffey and Medcalf on Wednesday were not immediately returned. Mercy Health legal counsel could not be reached Wednesday.
