The Robert Ray Courtney Case

1039 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Eli lilly case summary

In August of 2001 Robert Ray Courtney was arrested in Kansas City, Missouri and charged with diluting drugs used to treat cancer patients. Courtney’s actions not only violated criminal and civil laws but they shattered the ethical code and the oath he took as a licensed pharmacist. His actions left many people wondering why anyone would commit such a horrible act, let alone a trusted pharmacist who was providing medication to patients whose very lives depended on him doing his job. Detailed Account and Key Facts of the Robert Ray Courtney Case Case background. In 1992 then pharmacist Robert Ray Courtney started diluting medications that were given to patients by injection or infusion. In 1998 a sales representative from one of the drug companies, Darryl Ashley, noted a discrepancy in the amount of drugs Courtney ordered and dispensed. Eli Lilly was notified and investigated how Courtney was supplied the drugs. Finding that he did not go outside their supply chain, Eli Lilly did not pursue the issue any further. However in 2001 Ashley mentioned this in the office of Dr. Verda Hunter who sent samples of the drug in question to a laboratory for testing (Draper, 2003). In July of 2001 a federal investigation begins and on August 15, 2001 Courtney surrenders to the FBI. Biographical description of the defendant and his company. Robert Ray Courtney was born in Hays, Kansas in 1952. The only son of an ordained minister, the “families of traveling ministers typically were close but poor” (Montgomery, 2001). Words used to describe Robert Ray Courtney from numerous individuals that knew him were geek, quiet, reliable, stoic and successful. Courtney has been married three times and has four biological children and one ... ... middle of paper ... ... Retrieved May 24, 2011, from http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/08/magazine/the-toxic-pharmacist.html?pagewanted=8&src=pm. Freed, J. (2001). Wealthy Kansas City Pharmacist dilutes Cancer patients IV Chemo drugs! AllNurses.com website. Retrieved May 18, 2011, from http://allnurses.com/nursing-activism-healthcare/wealthy-kansas-city-9205.html. Health Care Fraud and Abuse Control Program. (2003). Annual Report For FY 2002. Office of the Inspector General, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services website. Retrieved May 26, 2011, from http://oig.hhs.gov/publications/docs/hcfac/HCFAC%20Annual%20Report%20FY%202002.htm. Montgomery, R. (2001). Robert R. Courtney: From quiet kid to wealthy pharmacist to indicted defendant. Access My Library website. Retrieved May 21, 2011, from http://www.accessmylibrary.com/article-1G1-120877309/robert-r-courtney-quiet.html.

Show More
Related

  • The Case of Scott Peterson

    749 Words  | 2 Pages

    Scott Peterson was an educated man from California Polytechnic State University where he graduated with a B.A. in Agricultural Business. He was married to his wife Laci Peterson who was also pregnant with their unborn son. In December of 2002 Laci Peterson went missing in the Modesto, California area where she shared a home with Scott. Once the investigation of Scott’s missing wife started authorities began to suspect Scott as a suspect in her disappearance. In April of 2003 a fetus and a female torso that was missing hands, feet, and a head were found on the shoreline of San Francisco Bay. The San Francisco Bay area was where Scott was boating the day of Laci’s disappearance. The body was later identified as Laci Peterson and the fetus as Laci and Scott’s unborn son. Scott was also arrested in the month of April shortly after the discovery of Laci and their son’s body and was later sentenced to the death penalty. Over the course of this paper I will cover the whole event of the disappearance of Laci Peterson, relating it to a sociological theory, the impact the event had on our society and how the media had influence over this national event.

    Read More

  • Gonzales V. Oregon Case Study

    656 Words  | 2 Pages

    Gonzales v. Oregon is a Supreme Court case that took place in 2005, with the verdict and dissenting opinions stated in January of 2006. The case is about the General Attorney’s ruling of a medical practice to be illegal. The Attorney General at the time was John Ashcroft, appointed under President George Bush Jr., who authorized that the usage of lethal doses of medicine on terminally-ill patients to be illegal under the Controlled Substance Act in 1970. The Controlled Substance Act of 1970 is a federal United States drug policy which limits the usage of certain medications in a variety of ways. (Oyez, n.d.).

    Read More

  • The Casey Anthony Case

    2178 Words  | 5 Pages

    The Casey Anthony case was one that captured the heart of thousands and made it to the headline of national TV talk shows, newspapers, radio stations and social media networks for months. The root of the case was due to a clash between the parental responsibilities, the expectations that went with being a parent, and the life that Casey Anthony wanted to have. The case was in respect to the discovering the cause of Casey’s two-year-old daughter, Caylee Marie Anthony’s, death; however the emphasis was placed on Casey and her futile lies, which resulted in a public outcry. The purpose of this essay is to delve into the public atmosphere and inquire about why the media and social media collectively attacked the case by uncovering the content of the case, the charges that were laid, and later dismissed, the “performers” of the trial and the publics reaction. It will further discuss how it defies universal ideologies and how the media represents this. The discussion of the complexities of the case and its connotations will incorporate Stuart Hall’s Representation and the Media, Robert Hariman’s Performing the Laws, What is Ideology by Terry Eagleton, The Body of the Condemned by Michael Foucault, and a number of news articles, which will reveal disparate ideas of representation in the media, and the role of the performers of the law and their effect on the understanding of the case.

    Read More

  • Robert Lee Brock Case Summary

    254 Words  | 1 Pages

    In 1995 a Virginian prison inmate Robert Lee Brock was determine to prove his innocence. While he couldn't trade places with man he could at least seek restitution. Brock filed charges stating that his religious beliefs had been violated and felt entitled to $5 million dollars. The defendant? Robert Lee Brock. He was suing himself. Of course, since he was in prison, the state would have to pay.

    Read More

  • Organizational Systems And Quality Leadership

    1835 Words  | 4 Pages

    The U.S. Health Care System: An International Perspective - DPEAFLCIO. (2014). Retrieved June 04, 2016, from http://dpeaflcio.org/programs-publications/issue-fact-sheets/the-u-s-health-care-system-an-international-perspective/

    Read More

  • The Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906

    1398 Words  | 3 Pages

    In 1906, the Pure Food and Drug Act, that was years in the making was finally passed under President Roosevelt. This law reflected a sea change in medicine-- an unprecedented wave of regulations. No longer could drug companies have a secret formula and hide potentially toxic substances such as heroin under their patent. The law required drug companies to specify the ingredients of medications on the label. It also regulated the purity and dosage of substances. Not by mere coincidence was the law passed only about five years after Bayer, a German based drug company began selling the morphine derivative, heroin. Thought to be a safe, non-habit forming alternative to morphine, heroin quickly became the “cure-all drug” that was used to treat anything from coughs to restlessness. Yet, just as quickly as it became a household staple, many began to question the innocence of the substance. While the 1906 law had inherent weaknesses, it signaled the beginning of the end for “cure-all” drugs, such as opiate-filled “soothing syrups” that were used for infants. By tracing and evaluating various reports by doctors and investigative journalists on the medical use of heroin, it is clear that the desire for this legislative measure developed from an offshoot in the medical community-- a transformation that took doctors out from behind the curtain, and brought the public into a new era of awareness.

    Read More

  • Nietzsche's Punishment and Guilt

    633 Words  | 2 Pages

    Below I attached two articles on the same story, the story is about a Medical Technician named David M. Kwiatkowski, who traveled to a few states and stole syringes of fentanyl. Then he would inject himself with the syringes and replace the fluid inside with saline and put them back to be used on patients. Kwiatkowski is infected by the Hepatitis C which made this one of the biggest outbreaks of the disease in recent decades. He was given a sentence of 39 years because of the impact of what he did and the many people it affected. Some facts from the article to know the extent of what happened are that 45 total people were infected by these syringes, and one of them has already died. Linda Ficken said in the trial to Mr. Kwiatkowski, “You handed down to us a potential death sente...

    Read More

  • James Lewis: The Seven Tylenol Murders

    395 Words  | 1 Pages

    The crime led to a major change in the distribution of over the counter medication. Over the counter medication was now supposed to be

    Read More

  • Anabolic Steroids Use by Athletes: A Threat to Body and Mind

    2342 Words  | 5 Pages

    "O'Brien, David, and Robbie Andreu. Rx for Disaster." Sun-Sentinel (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.) 14 July 1991: 1C+. SIRS "Drugs", vol. 5, article 31.

    Read More

  • Healthcare Disparities in the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered Community

    1491 Words  | 3 Pages

    U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (2012). 2012 National health care disparities report (13-0003). Retrieved from Agency for Health Care Research and Quality website: http://ahrq.gov-research-findings-nhqrdr-nhdr12-2012nhdr.pdf

    Read More

  • Medicare Fraud

    999 Words  | 2 Pages

    About Fraud. (n.d.). Retrieved from Stop Medicare Fraud The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and U.S. Department of Justice: http://www.stopmedicarefraud.gov/aboutfraud/index.html

    Read More

  • Drug War Failures and Drug Company Successes

    2394 Words  | 5 Pages

    From 1970 to 1998, the inflation-adjusted revenue of major pharmaceutical companies more than quadrupled to $81 billion, 24 percent of that from drugs affecting the central nervous system and sense organs. Sales of herbal medicines now exceed $4 billion a year. Meanwhile the war on Other drugs escalated dramatically. Since 1970 the federal antidrug budget has risen 3,700 percent and now exceeds $17 billion. More than one and half million people are arrested on drug charges each year, and 400,000 are now in prison. These numbers are just a window into an obvious truth: We take more drugs and reward those who supply them. We punish more people for taking drugs and especially punish those who supply them. On the surface, there is no conflict...The drug wars and the drug boom are interrelated, of the same body. The hostility and veneration, the punishment and profits, these come from the same beliefs and the same mistakes.

    Read More

  • The drug control policy of the United States

    1414 Words  | 3 Pages

    Manchikanti, Laxmaiah. “National Drug Control Policy and Prescription Drug Abuse: Facts and Fallacies.” Pain Physician Journal 10 (May 2011): 399-424. Print.

    Read More

  • Inethical Case Analysis: Lundbeck's Pentobarbital Case

    1051 Words  | 3 Pages

    In 2011, the media reported that in US prisons a sedative used for death penalty purposes was not being used as intended by the pharmaceutical company Lundbeck. The drug Nembutal as well as others were mixed into a cocktail and administered to prisoners undergoing the death penalty. Lundbeck got word of this from

    Read More

  • Oncology Case Study Essay

    794 Words  | 2 Pages

    There were many ethical issues within this case; the first indication of an ethical problem was the administration of an incorrect medication to the patient. The doctor, administration, and providers involved in the care of the patient must decide what is ethically moral when informing the patient. I believe that it is the patient’s right to know that she received the wrong medication for a number of days. Although no major medical consequences occurred, I believe this

    Read More

More about The Robert Ray Courtney Case

Open Document