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Doctor says drug amounts risked life
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More from County NewsRuben Navarro was in a coma and could not feel pain, and the amounts of medication allegedly given to him hours before he died served no medical purpose and put his life at risk, a neurologist testified Tuesday.
Neurologist David Frecker testified for the prosecution at the preliminary hearing for Hootan Roozrokh, a transplant surgeon charged with three felonies for allegedly attempting to hasten Navarro's death in order to harvest his organs.
"The medications prescribed and the doses prescribed would not have served a purpose of comfort care. They would serve only the purpose of suppressing respiration," said Frecker, who runs a muscular dystrophy clinic at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital.
The prosecution alleges that Roozrokh, 34, ordered a nurse to give Navarro 200 milligrams of morphine and 80 milligrams of Ativan during the hour they were in a Sierra Vista Regional Medical Center operating room on Feb. 3 and 4, 2006.
Roozrokh has pleaded not guilty.
If convicted of all charges, he could face up to eight years in prison.
Prosecutor Karen Gray asked Frecker why Navarro did not die immediately from such high doses. Frecker said he was surprised the drugs didn't kill him.
During cross-examination, M. Gerald Schwartzbach, Roozrokh's attorney, inferred that Navarro, who was dying from a debilitating genetic disease, did not die immediately because he had a high tolerance to morphine, which is why a nurse recommended he be given so much of the painkiller.
Schwartzbach also challenged Frecker's opinion that Navarro was not in pain in the operating room because his medical records that cover that time period have been lost.
The preliminary hearing will continue today with testimony from Dr. Clarence Foster, director of transplantation at UC Irvine Medical Center.
The hearing is being held in Department 1 in San Luis Obispo Superior Court.
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