Fil-Am doctor gets life for murder in Georgia

A US Supreme Court on Tuesday affirmed the conviction of a Filipino-American doctor found guilty of overdosing and eventually causing the death of his patient. He was sentenced to life imprisonment. The Georgia State Supreme Court in Atlanta said Dr. Noel Chua violated Georgia’s Controlled Substance Act after prescribing painkillers and other drugs to Jamie Carter III. The drugs led to Carter’s death 10 days before Christmas in 2005, according to Georgia’s highest state court. Court records showed Chua prescribed 10 narcotics to Carter between September and December 2005. In particular, police said Chua was prescribed methadone for treatment of Carter’s persistent headache six days before the latter’s death. On one prescription in November 2005, a certain pharmacist wrote Carter was receiving too many painkillers. Carter replied that his doctor was destroying the old medications, according to the pharmacist’s note. Chua himself wrote that Carter willingly returned old medications and feared being labeled a drug seeker. But according to the Composite State Board of Medical Examiners, Chua wrote several prescriptions without examining Carter, and in November alone prescribed four different painkillers in escalating amounts. The board said Carter was seen with syringes and bags of drug samples and bragged to friends he could get them any drug they wanted if they visited Chua. Prosecutors also listed other instances where Chua signed black prescription forms, prescribed drugs without examining the patient, and engaged in other irregularities between 2003 and August 2006, eight months after Carter’s death. Chua, an alumnus of Far Eastern University’s medical school, excelled in his class which landed him in the 11th spot of the 1992 Philippine medical board exam. He worked for a time as a Christian missionary doctor in Palawan before flying off to the US to get his master’s degree in health care policy and management from the Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He received the highest honors in his graduate studies. — Joseph Lariosa/JE, GMA News