By Olivia Wynkoop | Bay City News
A former pain management doctor in Santa Rosa has been sentenced to 30 months in prison for prescribing dangerous controlled substances to a 17-year-old patient who later fatally overdosed, the U.S. Justice Department announced.
On Friday, a federal judge issued a jail sentence for 75-year-old Thomas Keller, who was found guilty in November of four counts of unlawful distribution of controlled substances.
According to court documents, Keller knowingly and repeatedly prescribed strong, addictive opioids to a 17-year-old patient before she died of an overdose in 2017. were prescribed without “legitimate medical need,” the DOJ said.
The patient died of an overdose after being prescribed a combination of an opioid, a benzodiazepine and a Soma – a combination of drugs known to be extremely dangerous.
The teen also struggled with mental health issues before coming to Keller, the DOJ said.
Keller was ordered to surrender on September 8 and was given three years of supervised release after serving his sentence.
