Doctor’s Negligence Results in Loss of License

Dr. Kevin Buckwalter, a Nevada physician, was stripped of his license to prescribe controlled substances last week by the medical board following investigations and subsequent findings of gross medical negligence on the doctor’s part.

Buckwalter, who has been practicing in Nevada since 1997, has been accused of prescribing “excessive” doses of narcotics, in many cases with no medical exam and with little or no knowledge or review of the patient’s medical history.

In particular, there are four cases under review, in which the patients either died or overdosed on the medications prescribed by Buckwalter.

An extensive examination of Buckwalter’s records show gross negligence because in many cases he conducted “essentially no physical exam” of his patients before prescribing controlled substances for them, and that his records were “vague, haphazard and illegible”.

Some people who worked with the doctor in the past spoke of how he often knowingly prescribed narcotics to patients that had drug addictions, of which he was aware.  One of these patients, Staci Voyda, was addicted to OxyContin.  Buckwalter prescribed 310 oxycodone pills for her within an 11 day period.  Two weeks following this, Voyda committed suicide.  Her family believes that this is a direct result of having so many drugs in her system which were legally prescribed by Dr. Buckwalter.

69 year old Barbara Baile, another unfortunate victim of Buckwalter, was prescribed excessive amounts of narcotics, of which she eventually died from their side effects.

The medical board is still investigating the Buckwalter cases, and thoroughly examining all of his records.  At this point he has been charged with one count each of malpractice, failure to maintain adequate and complete medical records and writing prescriptions for controlled substances in an illegal manner.  If found guilty, he faces the loss of his license to practice medicine as well as possible criminal charges.

For the families of his victims, however, this is little relief.