Psychiatrist charged with manslaughter in patient's death

September 19, 2002 WEST PALM BEACH -- A psychiatrist was charged with manslaughter Wednesday because police think he caused a patient to ingest a fatal overdose of drugs in April.

Authorities said Dr. George M. Kubski provided patient Jamie Lea Massey with enough prescriptions for painkillers, antianxiety drugs and sleeping pills to give the patient access to 19,866 pills in the year before she died.

Massey died April 11, three days after falling into a coma caused by "combined drug toxicity," police said.

Kubski surrendered to West Palm Beach police Wednesday and was released on $10,000 bail.

Kubski's medical license was suspended last month in an emergency action taken by John Agwunobi, the state's health secretary, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported.

From January through March, Kubski prescribed Massey 3,620 tablets of oxazepam, an antianxiety drug and sleeping aid; 1,440 tablets of the narcotic painkiller hydrocodone; and 428 tablets of Ambien, a sleeping aid, according to police reports.

During an 87-day period leading to Massey's death, Kubski signed 29 prescription orders for 6,510 tablets of various medications, police said.

One medical expert said in the police report that prescribing that many pills was "idiotic" and "not in the realm of medical reasoning."

February 2003: West Palm Beach psychiatrist George M. Kubski, 58, is sentenced to one year in jail and 10 years of probation for manslaughter in a patient's overdose death.