Physician Pleads No Contest to Manslaughter Charge after Patient Death from Prescription Methadone

​A West Virginia physician indicted for involuntary manslaughter stemming from the death of a patient from methadone that the physician prescribed pled "no contest" to the charges, states a June 7, 2016 article in the Register-Herald. The lawsuit alleges that the physician knew the patient was "an abuser of controlled substances" and that he had "eloped" from a hospital emergency department (ED) at the time that the prescription was written. After filling the prescription, the patient died upon self-administering the methadone through intravenous equipment provided in the ED, the indictment reportedly stated.