Attorneys delivered opening statements Wednesday in the defamation case filed by William Husel against Mount Carmel and its parent company Trinity Health.
Husel, who was acquitted of murder charges in 2022, is accusing his former employer of defaming him during the criminal investigation about his painkiller-prescribing practices.
Husel's attorney, Jose Baez, said he will never be able to fully recover his reputation, but that the suit gives him a chance to set the record straight.
"Yesterday, defense counsel told you that just because someone's found out guilty that that doesn't mean they're innocent. Well, I'm gonna disagree and I'm going to ask you to look at him as if he is innocent, because Dr. Husel is innocent. In this country, you are innocent until proven guilty," Baez said.
Mount Carmel accused Husel of over prescribing pain meds, but Baez said Husel didn't and that he didn't violate any standards.
"One side is gonna tell you, 'these are way too much drugs to get to a person.' Another side is going to tell you different, and the medical community themselves can't agree,” Baez said. "In the medical community, there is no maximum dose, because they leave it up to the discretion of the doctor at end of life care. This is critical."
E. Powell Miller on the Trinity Health / Mount Carmel defense team said Husel prescribed doses that were sometimes five times or more higher than their guidelines and policies.
Miller said Husel was removed from the patient care schedule by a supervisor who was concerned about his doses and how he administered medications.
"Dr. Husel regularly prescribed fentanyl in much greater doses than mandated by Mount Carmel's guidelines. And we will show that those guidelines are identical in other hospitals in the country too,” Miller said during opening statements.
Baez said the people who died in the ICU had multiple ailments, that they were often undergoing other treatments that were unsuccessful and had teams of medical professionals who didn't fault Husel's work.
"Each and every one of these patients that we're going to discuss in this case had an attending physician and not a single one ever raised an issue with (Husel's) dose counts," Baez said.
Baez criticized the hospital system's public statements about Husel.
“Our clients could not remain silent or look the other way after Dr. Husel’s actions came to light. Our statements accurately and truthfully reported on the findings of our investigation,” the Mount Carmel/Trinity Health defense team stated during opening arguments.
Miller defended Mount Carmel's public statements and told jurors that there are ways of providing appropriate, palliative care to people near the end of their lives, without just dosing them up.
Miller argued that nine doctors agreed that Husel should have been fired for how he handled the doses. One of the attorneys also said Husel’s own actions damaged his reputation.
"He still maintains that the massive dosing he ordered was necessary for comfort care," Miller said for the defense team. "My clients have taken responsibility at great cost for not stopping Dr. Husel sooner. To establish defamation, Dr. Husel must prove by a ponderance of the evidence that one, we made one or more false statements of fact. Two, Dr. Husel must also then prove by the higher standard of clear and convincing evidence that we were negligent and failed to act with reasonable care when issuing these statements."
Miller said Husel willingly gave up his medical license and that it was up to the county to prosecute him.
On Husel's team, Baez said that doses will vary "based on certain patients and their medical history, their physiology and their illnesses."
"Some illnesses require less pain meds, others require more, it all depends. And you're going to notice throughout, they're all different numbers. If he's some killer in a white coat, they'd all have a certain amount. They would all be high," Baez said.
Twenty-seven cases were initially brought against Husel, but he was tried and acquitted of 14 cases when several of the charges were dropped before he went to trial.
