Prince’s family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Trinity Medical Center, alleging the hospital didn’t properly investigate and treat the singer’s overdose.
The hospital briefly treated Prince on April 15, 2016 after an overdose forced his plane to make an emergency landing. An investigation later concluded that the pop star unknowingly took a counterfeit form of Vicodin that night, which contained fentanyl. He died the following week.
Dr. Nicole F. Mancha, who treated Prince that night, said that he told her he took two Percocet that night. She didn’t believe him because the amount of that prescription drug wouldn’t have required two shots of Narcan. She added that the singer refused all testing.
The lawsuit says that if Trinity Medical Center conducted more tests on the Vicodin he took that night, they would have figured out it was counterfeit and could have treated him more effectively for overdose.
The family has also sued Walgreens, alleging its employees dispensed narcotic prescription medications to Prince “for an invalid medical purpose and failing to conduct the appropriate drug utilization review.”
“What happened to Prince is happening to families across America,” the family’s lawyers George Loucas and John Goetz said in a statement. “The family wishes through its investigation to shed light on this epidemic and how to better the fight to save lives. If Prince’s death helps save lives, then all was not lost.”
Authorities closed the death investigation for Prince last week because they weren’t able to identify the source of the fentanyl. No one was criminally charged in the case.
“There is no doubt that the actions of individuals closely associated with Prince will be questioned, criticized, and judged in the days and weeks to come,” Carver County, Minnesota attorney Mark Metz said at the time. “Suspicions and innuendo are categorically insufficient to support any criminal charges.”
Walgreens and the hospital’s parent company have declined to comment about the lawsuit.
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