COLUMBUS, Ohio — Former Mount Carmel Dr. William Husel’s legal team began its portion of the trial Wednesday by calling another critical care doctor to testify.
Dr. Joel Zivot was asked by the defense to review medical records in this case.
Husel is charged with 14 counts of murder – accused of killing critically ill patients under his care through overprescribing medications. He was fired by his employer, Mount Carmel Health System, in December 2018 and indicted on murders charges six months later.
His defense team has said Husel was providing comfort care medications to prevent his patients from enduring a painful or “bad death.”
Even before Dr. Zivot testified Wednesday, prosecutors objected to his testimony – noting that Zivot acknowledged that he spoke to Husel as part of his review of the medical records.
Prosecutors objected to his testimony being included because they alleged his conversations with Husel – the defendant in this case – helped form his opinions.
Zivot was ultimately allowed to testify, but not before nearly an hour of conversations occurred between attorneys and the judge in chambers Wednesday morning.
During his testimony, Zivot said it is important to not give too small of a dose of pain medication because you want to relieve a patient’s pain, adding that with pain control and dying you “want to get it right because you don’t get a second chance.”
He was later asked by Husel’s attorney Jose Baez if it was the patients’ underlying medical conditions that led to their deaths. Zivot replied yes.
In his written review, Zivot noted that Husel’s prescribing of “fentanyl and midazolam were for the sole purposes of providing the relief of pain and anxiety to patients as they faced death because of concurrent critical illness…”
Throughout the trial, family members of patients testified that Dr. Husel convinced them that their loved ones were brain dead or having organ failure, which helped steer them towards removing life support. Many have made similar allegations in civil lawsuits filed against Husel and Mount Carmel Health System.
During cross-examination, assistant prosecutor Taylor Mick asked Zivot about this:
Mick: “So if someone is brain dead does that mean you can then ethically give them any amount of fentanyl that you want?”
Joel Zivot: “No because if someone is dead, you don’t need to give them any fentanyl, because they’re dead.”
Mick: “So if an individual is brain dead, you don’t need to give them any fentanyl?"
Joel Zivot: "If a person is brain dead you need to bury them. That’s what you need to do…”
The trial is expected to resume Thursday.