The Drug Enforcement Administration (“DEA”) has linked Dr. Randall Wade, a McKinney, Texas physician, to the deaths of at least six of his patients. DEA and federal prosecutors allege Dr. Wade was running a pill mill and prescribed massive amounts of powerful painkillers to patients who didn’t need them. Dr. Wade was indicted on drug distribution charges in the Eastern District of Texas.
The family of a 26 year old patient of Dr. Wade say that she got hooked on heroin after Dr. Wade would prescribe large doses of drugs to her. The patient died of a heroin overdose. Her mother says that Dr. Wade would essentially write a prescription for whatever you needed.
In a recent hearing, Dr. Wade informed the court that he was planning to surrender his medical license and relinquish his DEA license to prescribe controlled substances. Civil lawsuits for wrongful death have been filed against Dr. Wade for his prescribing habits. Some Collin County pharmacies became suspicious of Dr. Wade’s prescribing tendencies and refused to fill prescriptions.
DEA agents testified that Dr. Wade was the No. 1 prescriber of hydrocodone in Collin County in 2015. Following a news story about Dr. Wade, more families have raised concerns about care their loved ones received. DEA is now looking into two more patient deaths. One of them was a Gainesville woman who died of an opiate-related overdose in March 2016. Patient files indicate that she had been prescribed large amounts of hydrocodone and alprazolam in the four months preceding her death. The second death involves a patient who had forged a prescription in Dr. Wade’s name. The family said that when Dr. Wade found out about it, he continued to write prescriptions for the patient.
http://www.wfaa.com/news/crime/family-describes-deadly-toll-at-hands-of-doctor-accused-of-running-pill-mill/349591271
http://www.wfaa.com/news/crime/mckinney-doctor-connected-to-eight-deaths-1/350932511
