Doctor loses his license after giving morphine to woman

Tuesday, May 23, 2006 | 7:34 a.m.

CARSON CITY - The Nevada Supreme Court has ruled that there was sufficient evidence to revoke the license of a Las Vegas physician who prescribed morphine to a 72-year-old suicidal woman who then died.

Dr. Kenneth D. Mower had argued that the state Board of Medical Examiners did not have enough proof to justify the disciplinary action and that the board failed to present evidence that would have helped his case.

In addition to revoking Mower's license, the board also assessed him $46,000 in costs.

The medical board found that Mower had prescribed a "lethal dose of opiate morphine to a woman who was not terminally ill."

The woman was admitted to Desert Springs Hospital in July 2002 after taking 200 pills containing narcotics and tranquilizers. The wishes of the woman and her husband were that no effort be made to prolong her life, only to keep her comfortable.

When the woman became agitated and struggled to breathe, Mower ordered that 10 milligrams of morphine be administered through an IV. That did not work, so Mower ordered the nurse to give up to 100 milligrams of morphine.

A short time later the woman died.

At the hearing before the medical board, Dr. Jerry Calvanese, an emergency room physician in Northern Nevada, testified that Mower's treatment fell below the acceptable standard of care.

Any administration of morphine to a drug overdose patient with a low respiratory rate increases the risk of death because the opiate depresses respiration, Calvanese said.

Mower, through his attorney, contended there should have been "clear and convincing evidence," not just a preponderance of evidence, for the board to take his license.

But the Supreme Court said: "The preponderance of the evidence standard bears a rational relationship to the legitimate state interest of protecting the public."

Mower also argued that the medical board failed to produce evidence that might have cleared him of the malpractice complaint, including statements by a doctor that there was nothing wrong with prescribing morphine to a patient to ease her suffering and from a nurse who said the first 10 milligrams of morphine did not have a lethal effect.

The court, however, said Mower's case was not harmed by the board's failure to introduce these statements because they did not rebut Calvanese's opinion.

After the patient's death, Desert Springs fired Mower.

The ruling by the Supreme Court upheld the decision of District Judge David Wall.