Carter likely addicted to pain medications, doctor testifies

More than an hour into his testimony, Dr. George Grubb told jurors Carter should have never been given a morphine injection by Chua, less than an hour before his discharge from a St. Marys hospital a few weeks before his death.
"It's a strategy that's going to fail," he testified.
Carter should have remained hospitalized if his pain was severe enough to warrant an injection of the drug, Grubb said.
He said Carter was possibly going through withdrawal from prescription pain killers, some of which may have increased the frequency and severity of his headaches.
He said there was nothing in the doctor's charts indicating if Carter was responding to treatment.
Grubb said patient records show Carter was prescribed medications without a visit to the doctor's office.
Patient records show Carter returned some medications, but they never identified which ones, he testified.
Chua also noted in Carter's patient record he prescribed a narcotic pain killer to be taken once a day. But the prescription instructions for the medication called for it to be taken twice a day.
He said the medications should not have been prescribed for headaches, and the medications should not have been taken on a daily basis.