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Doctor faces landmark murder trial for prescribing meds that led to patient ODs

By Martha Neil

September 9, 2015, 2:05 pm CDT

Is a physician criminally responsible when a patient takes more than the prescribed amount of painkilling drugs or mixes the prescription medication with alcohol?

That is the question jurors must answer in the case of Dr. Hsiu-Ying “Lisa” Tseng, who is currently on trial for second-degree murder in Los Angeles. Prosecutor John Niedermann says it is the first time a physician has ever been tried for murder in California simply for prescribing drugs that caused a death, the Los Angeles Times (sub. req.) reports.

A number of Tseng’s patients died from drug overdoses, and she is charged with murdering three of them. The government says there were red flags, including patient deaths, that should have alerted Tseng that she needed to change her practices, but she didn’t.

A woman who worked as a receptionist for Tseng, testified last week that the clientele of the family practice clinic changed after Tseng began working there. Men in their 20s who paid cash became commonplace, and daily receipts tripled or quadrupled, KABC reports.

A pharmacist said she stopped accepting prescriptions from Tseng because of the alarming amounts of Oxycontin and Xanax she prescribed. Niedermann said in his opening arguments that one patient will testify that Tseng only glanced at his chart before giving him a prescription.

But attorney Tracy Green, who is defending Tseng, asked jurors to consider that patients took more medication than prescribed and mixed drugs with alcohol, which Tseng could not control.

“She was not street-smart,” said the attorney of Tseng. “She just got in over her head.”

The Washington Post (reg. req.) also has a story.

See also:

South Florida Sun Sentinel: ” Death of pill mill patient focus of doctor’s murder trial”