Both complaints accused him of the same error: A fatal drug interaction medication error

Laura Migliano had herniated a disk in her back while doing sit-ups back in 1994. She spent a decade fighting the pain — with surgery, steroid injections, and finally with a battery-powered spinal cord stimulator. The stimulator helped, reducing the ache with electric shock. But then the battery died. Laura, who was 41 years old by that time in 2004, was in agony when she saw a pain specialist in Mesa, Arizona.

It turned out she needed only a battery change. But the doctor couldn't replace the battery for another six days, so he prescribed painkillers. Although a nurse by profession, Laura had no idea that the doctor's prescribed dosage of methadone — a narcotic usually reserved for heroin addicts trying to kick the habit — could interact with her other painkillers and kill her.

It did.

In his notes, the doctor wrote that Laura should take five to 10 milligrams of methadone. But on her prescription, he wrote 120 milligrams — a fatal dose when combined with her other medications, which he had never determined before writing the prescription.

Laura drove to the pharmacy and filled the prescription. Then she went home and drank the pills down with a large glass of water — just as the doctor ordered. She was expecting relief from her lower-back pain.

Instead, her best friend found her dead the next morning.

Within 30 days of her death in 2004, the state medical board received two more serious complaints against the same doctor. Both accused him of the same error that had killed Laura — prescribing narcotics without learning what drugs his patients were taking and failing to document their visits.

Advice to patients on pain medications: Verify that your drugs will not dangerously interact with each other by using the free drug interaction checker under our Resources and Links section.

Browse for similar stories in our index at the very bottom of this page, or read a celebrity’s drug interaction story.

Thanks to John Dickerson for the source story in the Phoenix New Times News of March 6.