The Virginia Supreme Court issued a decision recently regarding punitive damages in case of over-prescribing Percocet.
The facts of the case are as follows: the plaintiff broke her ankle and came under the care a surgeon, who began prescribing opioids after multiple surgeries to repair the ankle. After the first surgery, the surgeon began prescribing Percocet. Percocet is a prescription drug consisting of acetaminophen and oxycodone. Over the next 40 months, the surgeon wrote the plaintiff 144 prescriptions for Percocet. The surgeon generally prescribed between 40 and 60 five-milligram Percocet tablets to the plaintiff on a weekly basis. Throughout the course of the plaintiff’s treatment, the surgeon prescribed over 7,000 Percocet tablets.
Significantly, the surgeon knew that the plaintiff had an increased risk of developing an addiction to narcotic pain medications, like Percocet, due to the plaintiff’s history of bipolar disorder and alcohol use. Despite the plaintiff’s increased risk of addiction, the surgeon never attempted to treat the plaintiff’s pain with a non-narcotic medication. The surgeon further did not examine the plaintiff over the last fourteen months of her life. Yet, over this time period, the surgeon wrote the plaintiff fifty-two (52) prescriptions for approximately 2,400 Percocet tablets.