Please join The Becker Law Firm in congratulating partner and trial lawyer, Romney Cullers for his record-setting verdict of $4,531,700.50 in The Court of Claims of Ohio. The case was tried on behalf of the family of a young man who died of a drug overdose after discharge from The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center.
Pain management physicians treated him in the hospital with high-dose opioids following surgery on his lower back. Despite knowing the young man had been addicted to opioid pain medication years earlier, they discharged him without any plan to wean him from the opioids he had been given in the hospital and then provided him with a prescription for high-dose opioids at the time of discharge without any plans for follow up. He took the medication at home, as prescribed, and died 36 hours later. The coroner who investigated the circumstances surrounding the young man’s death testified that the dosages of pain medication given by the Wexner Medical Center providers were the highest he had ever seen and were sufficient to induce death when taken exactly as prescribed. The young man was “opioid naïve” because he had not used opioids for many years. His body was then overwhelmed by the massive doses prescribed by The Ohio State University providers.
The young man is survived by his wife of 16 years and three young children. The verdict is believed to be among the largest, if not the largest, in The Court of Claims of Ohio history. The firm also wishes to acknowledge the efforts of co-counsel, Francis Sweeney, who participated in the trial with Mr. Cullers.