Jury awards $20 million to family of a man with sleep apnea who got a fatal dose of opioid painkillers

A Palm Beach County jury has awarded $20 million to the family of a Boca Raton man who was being treated with painkillers by a doctor who failed to ask whether the patient suffered from sleep apnea.

Josh Hamby, 54, of Boca Raton, was given a 2-milligram dose of Dilaudid, a brand name for the prescription drug hydromorphone, to treat the pain caused by his pancreatitis. While being treated overnight at Boca Raton Regional Hospital in June 2020, the patient was given another dose, this one at 4 milligrams. Another 4-milligram dose followed hours later.

The COVID-19 pandemic was still in its early quarantine stage, and Hamby’s wife could not be by his side to watch over his condition or warn doctors when he stopped breathing.

According to the lawsuit filed by his survivors, Hamby fell into a coma after the third dose. He was taken off a respirator a week later and died.

Had doctors known Hamby suffered from sleep apnea, they would have taken numerous precautions that likely would have saved Hamby’s life, said Daniel Harwin, one of the lawyers for the plaintiff.

“It is well established that when a patient or any person has sleep apnea, the effects of opioids can be exacerbated,” Harwin said. The drug Hamby was given is anywhere from five to 10 times more powerful than morphine, according to the National Institutes of Health, though morphine’s effects last longer. “Any patient that comes into the emergency room, it is incumbent on the physician to specifically ask and elicit whether the patient has a history of sleep apnea.”

Hamby was asked whether he had any pre-existing heart or lung conditions, but sleep apnea is neither.

“That was the bulk of their defense,” said Deborah Gander, who works with Harwin at the Fort Lauderdale-based Freedland Harwin Valori Gander firm. “They testified that given the level of pain he was in, the doctor gave the right dosage of medication.”

A message left for the lawyer representing the doctor and the hospital was not returned Tuesday.

Sleep apnea is caused by a blocking of the upper airway during sleep, and snoring is one of the most common symptoms. Opioids, according to the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, can cause sleep apnea or intensify its effects.