Capt. Michael Fontana is accused of killing three terminally ill patients last summer at Wilford Hall Medical Center in San Antonio. The nurse faces three counts of murder, or possibly lesser charges of
attempted murder or negligent homicide, as well as conduct
unbecoming an officer.
Army Lt. Col. Pedro Lucero, a critical care physician at Brooke Army Medical Center and an medical expert witness for the government, said the 70 milligrams of morphine Dorothy Gray received in two doses 70 minutes apart caused her death. But Dr. Robert Bux, a forensic pathologist and defense witness, disagreed with a ruling by the Bexar County Medical Examiner's Office that Gray's death was a homicide. He said her blood samples were “shaky” because he didn't know what part of her body they came from.
Dr. Robert Fine, an expert on palliative care and internal medicine for the defense, said medication orders were vague and inconsistent. More disturbing, he said, was a decision doctors made after consulting family members to take Dorothy Gray, a stroke victim, off a ventilator.
For more, see mysanantonio.com.
