VIDEO – ANGEL OF MERCY OR ANGEL OF DEATH? –
Feb. 22, 2022 – In an email sent in late November 2018, Gregory Dresbach wrote to his supervisor: “Well, here we go again.”
It was in reference to how patient Melissa Penix had received an order of 2,000 micrograms of fentanyl. “Obviously there is great concern for the doses that were ordered and were given, especially in the context that the patient was able to report her pain was just prior to administering such large doses of these very dangerous drugs,” Dresbach’s email continued. The day before Penix received that dose, Dresbach had rejected an order of 1,000 micrograms that Dr. William Husel ordered be given to patient Rebecca Walls. Dresbach testified he got called away to the emergency room and when he returned he realized Walls had been given the medication anyway – despite his earlier rejection.
Dresbach said that he had questioned the orders because “they seemed high to me.”
In late October, Dresbach said he was working when another Mount Carmel pharmacist, Talon Schroyer, had questioned an order meant for patient James Nick Timmons.
Dresbach said he felt compelled to notify his supervisor about patients Walls and Penix after recalling the concern that was raised after Timmons.
Following Penix’s death, Husel was placed on administrative leave. He was fired in early December of 2018.
Prosecutors allege Husel caused the deaths of 14 of his patients by ordering excessive doses of fentanyl.
His legal defense team – including Miami attorney Jose Baez and Columbus attorney Diane Menashe – have alleged that Husel was providing comfort care to patients in their final moments of life.
And that – while aggressive with his dosage orders – Husel’s intent was to help his patients avoid suffering or the experience of a “bad death.”
