Methadone Overdosed Patient Awarded $244K

The Portland Press Herald recently reported that Dr. Steven Keefe breached standards of medical care and was negligent in supervising his patient Sharon Pratt, and a jury has awarded her $244,000.

Pratt had been given repeated high doses of methadone at a Westbrook clinic - including prescriptions after she overdosed on more than once.

Keefe, the former medical director at CAP Quality Care, was sued in Cumberland County Superior Court beginning in 2008.

Both Keefe, and the clinic's founder, Dr. Marc Shinderman, oversaw Pratt's treatment in 2001 and 2002. 

In 2006 Shinderman, at the time considered an expert on controversial drug treatment, was convicted for prescription fraud and sentenced to six months in prison.

Keefe allowed Shinderman to use his name and drug registration number to prescribe methadone to Pratt while she was a patient at CAP.

Pratt's trial began January 31, and the jury reached its verdict after a three-hour deliberation.

Both Keefe, and Pratt, were found to be at fault not only for Pratt's overdoses, but also for her two car crashes and several hospital stays between October 2001 and June 2002.  But, since jurors found that Keefe was far more negligent, it led to the judgment to be in favor of Pratt.

Justice Thomas Warren presided, Anthony Sineni represented Pratt and Christopher Taintor represented Keefe.  Neither attorney could be reached for comment.

Pratt began taking prescriptions for painkillers while undergoing years of cancer treatment.  She was referred to a methadone clinic in South Portland, the Discovery House, for treatment.

Methadone is a synthetic drug known to help addicts get off of heroin and other opiates.

Court records show that Pratt preferred to be treated at CAP instead of Discovery House because Shinderman would "prescribe her whatever she wanted."

Shinderman wasn't licensed to practice medicine in Maine, which led to his use of Keefe's licensure.  Shinderman told the court he thought that what he was doing wasn't illegal.  Keefe, on his part, admitted to giving Shinderman several full pads of prescriptions that he had already signed.

Portland police were already alerted to how CAP was run and believed that their practices - of allowing patients to take methadone home and prescribing large doses - were contributing to black market street sales and a higher number of overdose.

In 2001, after Pratt's first overdose, it was discovered that Discovery House had allowed her a daily dose of 215 milligrams.  It was raised to three times that amount - 690 milligrams - at CAP.

After the first overdose CAP increased Pratt's daily amount again, it was now 1,050.

Sineni wrote, "When questioned by Ms. Pratt regarding the continuing need to increase her methadone dose, Dr. Shinderman responded by saying, 'Sharon, your problem is that you're mental and what you need is more dope ... addicts need dope'."

In 2002 Pratt fell in a parking lot and sustained a head injury, two weeks later she crashed her car and was treated for an overdose, by April of 2002 she had a second car crash an hour after taking her daily dose, and, on May 30 she overdosed and spent three days at Maine Med.

Then she entered a detox program at Mercy Recovery Center.

Sineni wrote, "Throughout Ms. Pratt's treatment at CAP, Drs. Shinderman and Keefe prescribed and administered methadone and other drugs to Ms. Pratt in grossly negligent, medically unreasonable and dangerous combinations, quantities and dosages."

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