Personal Injury Law

Lake County, Illinois Wrongful Death Lawsuit Names Coroner As Defendant in Man?s Methadone Overdose

The mother of Steven Vaughn is suing Lake County Coroner Richard Keller for Illinois wrongful death. Steven, 30, died on December 3, 2008 of a drug overdose just hours after he was prescribed methadone to treat his addiction.

Keller used to serve as the methadone clinic director at the now-defunct Green Dragonfly. The clinic shut down last year after federal and state inspectors found numerous violations.

In her wrongful death lawsuit, Jill Vaughn accuses Keller, a licensed physician, of improperly prescribing methadone to her son. She contends that Keller failed to order the proper lab tests or correctly evaluate her son or his medical history.

Jill is the one who found her son?s body at home. She believes that Steven lied to Keller about having a heroin addiction so that the physician would prescribe methadone for him to take. Other health clinics had reportedly turned down her son, who was addicted to Xanax.

Lake County, Illinois Medical Malpractice
Physicians are responsible for making sure that they do what they can to protect patients from overdosing on their medication. They also must make sure that anything they prescribe will not cause a dangerous drug reaction because of health issues that the patient may have or other medications that he/she may already taking. Doctors must also be aware of the potentially deadly side effects that can result.

You may have grounds for a Lake County, Illinois medical malpractice case if negligence contributed in any way to a medication overdose or death.

Lake coroner named in wrongful death, Chicago Tribune, December 13, 2010

Lake Co. Coroner sued over methadone clinic-related death, Daily Herald, December 15, 2010

Related Web Resources:
Federal Regulation of Methadone Treatment

Outpatient Methadone Treatments, Ireta.org (PDF)

Full post as published by Chicago Injury Attorney Blog on December 16, 2010 (boomark / email).