Inset: Kyle Slade (Obituary). Background: Copper Spring East in Gilbert, Ariz. (Google Maps).
An Arizona family is grieving the loss of a husband and father of four who tragically died following a medication error. The man was mistakenly given a lethal dose of methadone instead of his prescribed antidepressant, according to a recent lawsuit.
James “Kyle” Slade, 39, sought help for his depression at Copper Springs East, a mental health facility in Gilbert, a city within the Phoenix metropolitan area. On the morning of September 28, he approached the nurse’s station to receive his morning medications. What he received, however, was tragically incorrect.
The lawsuit, a 16-page document filed in Maricopa County Court, details how Slade was provided with “a cup of pills” which he took without knowing they were not his prescribed Lexapro. Instead, he ingested 90 milligrams of methadone, a powerful opioid.
Initially, there seemed to be no adverse effects, as methadone’s toxicity doesn’t peak immediately. The lawsuit describes how Slade appeared unaffected for several hours following the fatal mistake.
Then, for a while, not much happened, according to the filing.
“Methadone toxicity does not peak for several hours, so Kyle seemed at first to be unaffected by the fatal dose of methadone,” the lawsuit reads.
Then, 37 minutes later, the nurse who allegedly administered the pills contacted the on-call physician to describe the snafu, according to the lawsuit. After that, Slade was “instructed” to go to breakfast and then went to his room, the filing says.
The lawsuit highlights some level of discord about the dosage.
The nurse who handed out the pills allegedly wrote, in a “handwritten note” cited in the complaint in full:
This RN gave medication to the wrong patient. 90 mg Methadone was given to James S. The patient swallowed the pills instead of letting them dissolve. House Supervisor and [on-call physician] notified. The patient was notified and vitals were checked. The patient and on coming RN were made aware as well.
The aforementioned on-call physician, however, allegedly wrote a note of his own which reads, in relevant part:
I was called by RN this morning, 7:17AM. He reported that he incorrectly gave 9 mg of methadone to this patient. He states the patient responded to his first name therefore date of birth was not verified by RN. Confirmed with RN 3 times as to specific dose given…
But Slade’s family says, despite the incorrect medicine, the facility and its staff simply failed to act with due haste after the fact.
The pills were administered around 6:40 a.m. that day, the lawsuit says. Then, a new nurse appeared for a shift change around 8 a.m. and was apprised of the incident, according to the lawsuit. But, the filing says, the new nurse “did nothing whatsoever to ensure Kyle’s safety.”
Nearly three hours later, at 9:30 a.m., Slade was “discovered in his room, unresponsive,” with extremely high blood pressure indicative of a crisis or emergency, the lawsuit recounts. And, yet still, quick action was apparently not in the offing, according to the complaint.
“Remarkably, despite these ominous vitals, it took nine minutes for the Copper Springs East staff to call a Code Blue,” the lawsuit goes on. “Despite Kyle obviously suffering from a methadone overdose, and despite there being a standing Narcan order for every admitted patient at Copper Springs East, and despite Narcan being a nasal spray that can be administered almost immediately, nobody on the Copper Springs East staff gave Kyle Narcan.”
The lawsuit offers cascading suites of liability — saying if either of the two nurses or the on-call physician at the facility had sent Slade “to the emergency department when they learned of the methadone overdose, Kyle would have been admitted to the intensive care unit, placed on a Narcan drip, and almost certainly have suffered no adverse effects from the overdose.”
Firefighters arrived at 9:47 a.m. and finally did give the dying man Narcan — but by then it was far too late, the lawsuit says.
The victim was rushed to nearby Mercy Gilbert Medical Center where, in the days to come, doctors determined he “had no brain activity.” Slade died on Oct. 3, after donating several of his organs.
“This is not just a tragic mistake—it’s a complete breakdown of responsibility at every level,” Richard Lyons, an attorney for the Slade family, said in a press release announcing the litigation. “Kyle asked for help and trusted this facility with his life. That trust was shattered.”
The lawsuit alleges the two nurses involved in Slade’s care on the day in question were “neither a psychiatric nurse nor a regular employee,” but instead temp agency hires.
The lead defendant is Lifepoint Health — a health care provider that offers various products and services to patients and clinicians.
The company responded to the turn of events in a statement obtained by Mesa-based NBC affiliate KPNX.
“Our hearts go out to this patient’s family,” the statement reads. “As a matter of practice, we do not comment on active litigation and cannot provide any further details at this time out of respect for patient confidentiality. Lifepoint Health, and all of our affiliated hospitals and sites of care, are committed to providing safe, excellent care to every patient we serve.”
Lyons, in turn, rubbished the company’s response.
“Save the sympathy,” he said. “Stop hiring temp nurses to save money—because if they hadn’t done that, this never would’ve happened.”
The lawsuit is seeking special, general, incidental, and consequential damages against all the named and unnamed defendants; additionally, the family is seeking punitive damages against the two nurses.
“Trying to tell our kids…it was the hardest thing I’ve ever done,” the victim’s wife, Morgan Slade, told the local TV station.
