Father of VT Jazz Musician Sues UVM for Wrongful Death After Fatal Overdose
A prominent world-renowned doctor based in Burlington is suing the University of Vermont Medical Center for medical negligence and wrongful death for the fatal overdose of his adult son five years ago
By Michael Donoghue. Vermont News First
A prominent world-renowned doctor based in Burlington is suing the University of Vermont Medical Center for medical negligence and wrongful death for the fatal overdose of his adult son five years ago.
A jury will begin hearing testimony on Monday in the civil lawsuit brought by Dr. David N. Krag as executor of the estate of Peter M. Krag, a well-known local jazz musician in Vermont.
The lawsuit maintains Dr. Halle G. Sobel, an adult primary care internal medicine physician, along with other unknown employees at the UVM Medical Center had treated Peter Krag until he died in May 2020 at age 34. Peter Krag started using opioids, including heroin and fentanyl when he was 27 until his death, the lawsuit notes.
Krag’s treatment – or lack thereof – is the center of the lawsuit that has drawn considerable internal interest within the state’s largest medical center and in the medical community.
Peter Krag was an intelligent, artistic and caring young man, who graduated from the University of Vermont in 2007, according to the lawsuit filed by Burlington attorney Thomas J. Sherrer, who is co-counsel with Mary Kehoe of Shelburne.
Krag was well-known for his keyboard playing with a handful of popular musical groups and would often make appearances at several top local music venues, including Leunig’s Bistro on the Church Street Marketplace.
Dr. Sobel obtained consent from Peter Krag to discuss his care and treatment with his parents, David and Jesusa Krag of Shelburne, court papers note. The lawsuit said, “In an email exchange, Dr. Krag tells Dr. Sobel that absolutely 100 percent Peter cannot control himself and needs medical assistance to deal with his opiate addiction and Dr. Sobel agreed.”
Krag’s parents had been authorized to work with Dr. Sobel and get regular updates on their son to help fight his addiction, the lawsuit said. Between 2013 and 2020 with the help of his parents and others, Krag participated in multiple inpatient and outpatient treatment centers, court records note.
At one point in 2018 his parents, David and Jesusa Krag, took him to North Carolina for an attempted intervention because his heroin/fentanyl use had become increasingly destructive, the lawsuit said.
Dr. Sobel’s bio from UVM Health says “she cares for patients with opioid use disorder and helps those individuals in their receiver from the chronic disease of addiction.” It also notes she is an associate professor of medicine for UVM’s Robert Larner College of Medicine, where she works with and does mentoring for trainees.
While Dr. Sobel is mentioned throughout court papers, only the UVM Medical Center is named as a defendant in the civil lawsuit filed in May 2022. The jury trial, which has been postponed a few times, including in January when the court finally set a “date certain” for the trial to start on June 2.
The trial is scheduled for one week with Judge Megan J. Shafritz presiding. The jury was selected in April and opening statements are expected shortly after court convenes at 8:30 a.m. Monday.
The UVM Medical Center has issued a general denial to the lawsuit through its defense lawyers Nicole Andreson and Angela Clark from the Burlington law firm of Dinse. They focus on medical malpractice cases and have maintained in court filings there was comparative negligence and a failure to mitigate damages.
Krag was survived by his father, Dr. Krag, a researcher, surgeon and practitioner, his mother and a brother. Dr. Krag, as an academic, holds the S.D. Ireland Family Professorship in Surgical Oncology at UVM.
Between Oct. 1, 2019 and Jan. 24, 2020, Peter Krag had monthly naltrexone injections supervised by Dr. Sobel’s office, the lawsuit noted. He had a positive urine test around the holidays, and he was going through court-ordered counseling through the Howard Center, court papers note.
Dr. Sobel never informed Krag’s parents that she had changed his prescription from injections to oral naltrexone or advise Peter Krag he was now at a higher risk to overdose, the lawsuit maintains. It also claims that there is no record of Sobel monitoring Krag’s use of the oral naltrexone.
Krag’s parents said they were under the impression their son was doing better between January and May 2020 and thought it was due to the naltrexone injections. They were unaware that their son’s use of alcohol was increasing, the lawsuit said.
While counseling continued in the spring of 2020, Krag picked up two driving while under the influence charges in March and May, records show.
On May 13, 2020, Krag had his first appointment with Dr. Sobel via telehealth since Jan. 24, 2020 and he told the doctor he was doing “pretty well” and was continuing his work through the Treatment Court. Even though he had a DUI arrest two days earlier, Krag said he thought his alcohol use was under control. He told Dr. Sobel he had stopped taking the oral naltrexone and it was noted on the medical charts, the lawsuit said.
Dr. Sobel ended the virtual office visit telling Krag to “let me know if I can help in any way with regard to this issue (Opiate Abuse Disorder),” Sheerer wrote in the lawsuit.
The lawsuit maintains Dr. Sobel failed to inform Krag’s parents that he was not on any form of medication dealing with his addiction and was experiencing increase alcohol use.
“She also failed to inform the parents Peter was now at a higher risk of overdosing and there was no active treatment with her and Peter going forward,” the lawsuit noted.
It was nine days later that Krag overdosed and was found dead with a needle in his arm in the driver’s seat of a car outside 345 Malletts Bay Avenue near Morehouse Drive on the west side of Winooski.
Winooski Police reported Officer Jason Ziter, Detective Stephen Bova and St. Michael’s College Rescue responded to a 911 call shortly before 10 a.m. May 22, 2020, but Krag was found dead. A passer-by spotted the slumped driver with a needle in an extremity and tried to get his attention by kicking the small Pontiac, but there was no reaction, Bova reported.
The Federal Drug Enforcement Administration sent an agent to the scene to seize a white iPhone and a black Google phone owned by Krag, police said. Shelburne Police Officer Dan Eickenberg was contacted to deliver the death notification to the family.
Between September 2019 and July 2020 multiple emails were exchanged between Dr. Sobel and Dr. Krag “concerning Peter’s care, treatment and death. Dr. Krag expressed concern about Peter’s lack of candor, history of relapse, need for medication and fear of relapse, overdose and death,” the lawsuit said.
Dr. Sobel in an Oct. 31, 2019 email promised Dr. Krag, “Hate to go around his back, as he is an adult, but he did give permission to communicate with you and Jesusa … and I feel if he is not making good decisions, I need to reach out to you.”
Dr. Sobel relied on the parents to convey information to the patient “and the parents were relaying on Sobel, based on this promise, to keep them apprised of developments in Peter’s care.”