Drugs/Therapy

'Dr Death' Charged With Murder: Psychiatrist Allegedly Killed 36 Patients

By Sara Gale | Update Date: May 20, 2016 06:48 AM EDT

A psychiatrist in Georgia who is charged with three counts of felony murder is dubbed as "Dr Death" for having been associated with deaths of 36 patients. The doctor is also charged with 59 counts of unauthorized distribution of pain medicine after the alleged death of 12 patients that became the victims of medicine overdose.

Initially, the 57-year-old psychiatrist, Narendra Nagareddy was arrested in January for overdose death of 29-year-old Audrey Austin. Nagareddy, who was bailed later, was kept under house arrest until he was taken back into police custody on Tuesday under few other charges.

"Dr Death" is charged for the death of Robinson, 49, and Cheryl Pennington 47, two other patients of Nagareddy that allegedly died of medicine overdose. It is reported that in a period of 11 months till July 2015, Nagareddy has prescribed 500 times the amount of medicine oxycodone prescribed by any psychiatrist in Southern Regional Medical Center. It is also noted that post-mortem reports of about 12 patients of Nagereddy were confirmed to have died of prescription drug overdoses.

"In all, federal authorities say 36 of Nagareddy's patients died while he was prescribing them controlled substances, including oxycodone, methadone, hydrocodone, and amphetamine. Authorities declined to give information on the causes of death for 24 patients," according to CBS News.

According to the court, as per WGCL report the psychiatrist wasn't taking good care of the patients at his Jonesboro office. It is also reported that patients were prescribed of drugs without analyzing previous health history, prescription records, X-rays or MRI scans.

However, the doctor who maintains his innocence stand till date has reported that he is an innocent man and pleaded authorities to understand that he takes care of severely mentally sick patients.

"Mike Jones told the station that his wife, Cheryl Pennington, and son were both patients of the doctor," reported Mail Online. "I had no idea that our son had never been tested or anything. He was just given prescriptions. The doctor in the ER flat out told me that her liver was just completely shot from years of pain medication, and come to (find) out, he was the one giving her pain medicine, he added," noted the report.

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