Doctor appeals loss of license to Nevada court

Thursday, Dec. 8, 2005 | 8:11 a.m.

By Cy Ryan Sun Capital Bureau

CARSON CITY -- A Las Vegas doctor who lost his license for giving morphine to a suicidal patient is appealing to the Nevada Supreme Court on Monday.

The state Medical Examiners Board pulled the license of Dr. Kenneth D. Mower and ordered him to pay $46,000 in costs for "prescribing a lethal dose of opiate morphine to a woman who was not terminally ill."

The patient, a 72-year-old woman who suffered from chronic pain, had taken a large number of drugs, was unconscious and had made known her desire to die, according to court records.

The incident took place at Desert Springs Hospital in July 2002.

James Rosenberger, a lawyer representing Mower, said his in legal brief that the doctor had been informed the woman was not to be resuscitated and was only to be provided comfort. He said it was clear the patient should be allowed to die.

But the woman became agitated and was struggling to breathe. Mower ordered 10 milligrams of morphine for her. When that didn't help, the physician ordered the patient be given up to 100 milligrams in staggered doses of 10 milligrams every seven minutes to relieve the distress.

Rosenberg said the nurse gave larger doses than ordered and the patient died. He argued that the medical board should have been required to find "clear and convincing evidence" that Mower had committed malpractice. The law said it had only to find a preponderance of evidence.

The evidence presented at the hearing of the medical board was insufficient to take away Mower's license, Rosenberg argued.

But Bonnie Brand, chief counsel for the board, said Mower's actions "were below the appropriate standard of care and were properly deemed malpractice."

The board accepted the testimony of expert witness Dr. Jerry Calvanese that giving morphine to the patient was inappropriate, she said in her brief.

Mower "committed malpractice by ordering administration of a lethal dose of morphine that precipitated the death," she added.

Morphine depresses respiration, and there was nothing to justify its administration, Brand said.

Rosenberg said that Medical Examiner Rexene Worrell first ruled the death a suicide, then changed the cause to "undetermined" and then to "homicide."

A panel of three justices will hear arguments Monday and Tuesday in the Regional Justice Center in Las Vegas.

On Tuesday the court will hear arguments on the appeal of Bridget L. Pascua, sentenced to 54 years to life in prison for the beating-suffocation death of 66-year-old Doyle Upson in his Las Vegas apartment.

Prosecutors said Pascua and Kimberly Crawford, now 37, killed Upson for a $44,000 sports betting ticket.

Attorney Marvin Longabaugh, who is representing Pascua, said in his appeal brief that the prosecutor committed errors at the trial that required overturning the Pascua conviction and granting a new trial. The prosecution refutes the claim.

Pascua represented herself at trial.

Cy Ryan can be reached at (775) 687-5032 or at cy@lasvegassun.com.