Welcome to the Medical Legal Podcast, where healthcare meets the law. I'm Shawna Butler, nurse attorney. In each episode, we explore gripping real life stories at the intersections of medicine, ethics, and justice.
From headline-making cases to the behind-the-scenes legal dilemmas that healthcare workers face every day. In big communities and smaller, lesser well-known ones. Whether you wish scrubs or a suit, these stories are compelling.
thought-provoking, and deeply human. Let's begin.
Would you be disturbed if you heard that a physician caring for you in a vulnerable time called you a moron?
What if they called a loved one of yours a moron? Let's talk a little bit about the care that Matthew Perry received prior to his death a couple years back.
Most of us have heard of beloved actor Matthew Perry, a friend's notoriety.
He was also in several movies, Fools Rush In" in 1997, cute movie, I recommend it if you haven't seen it.
17 again in 2009, whole 9 yards in 2000.
And they had a sequel as well. Talented, funny guy.
who was found unresponsive in his pool in his LA home October 28th of 23.
2023, excuse me, at just 54 years old. His autopsy found his cause of death to be the acute effects of ketamine.
and subsequent drowning. If you're not familiar with ketamine, it is an anesthetic with a hallucinogenic effects, and some people have found great success with depression, substance use disorder, and other mental health issues. So don't villainize the drug.
villainize the improper handling of his health care. and drug administration.
Healthcare clinicians have a higher ethical duty than the general public.
And here, at Medical Legal Podcast, we like to talk about ethical and legal issues as they relate.
to, you know, notor. notorious cases.
Things discussed in society and in community. Related to possibly infamous people, or an infamous death such as Matthew Perry's.
Ethical duty is one of the most important things that I, as a healthcare clinician, feel that I am responsible and accountable for.
And beyond legal and even ethical, what is just downright right?
When someone is vulnerable and in need of help and support, we are not to take advantage of them, and again, we as the healthcare clinicians are held to a higher standard than the average person in society.
So, you know, our duties as health care clinicians, we're bound by certain things. We're expected to do things because of laws. There's also codes of ethics that physicians must follow, that every healthcare profession must follow. Nurses have the American Nurses Association Code of Ethics.
Prior to that, we've had ethical principles, beneficence to do good, non-maleficence to do no harm, veracity to tell the truth, even confidentiality predates the HIPAA federal law that was first enacted in the 1990s.
Nurses do a pledge, the Nightingale Pledge. Physicians do an oath, the Hippocratic Oath.
And sadly, none of this was taken into consideration in Matthew Perry's case.
Now, keep in mind that we're not a true crime podcast. There are plenty that you can listen to, and we'll discuss this, and that you can look into more details. But we'll talk briefly about what sadly occurred, and then get into more of the ethical components. And what can we learn from this, and how can we do better as the healthcare profession and industry?
So, there was a group of 5 people in connection with.
the death of Matthew Perry charged. In connection, some of them were charged with conspiracy to distribute ketamine.
And it's sad that they were providing him. In some aspect, ketamine therapy, the appropriate way in a clinic, right? Ketamine is a drug that you don't administer at home.
It's administered to you in a healthcare setting while you're monitored. You might be on a heart monitor, a blood pressure monitor, it would depend on your specific circumstances, your, you know, your healthcare issues, as well as, you know, the drug being administered, but this.
example is ketamine. So you want it to be safe. And Matthew Perry reported receiving great effect from it and unfortunately.
thought that doing it at home on his own would be better, and was able to get.
Unscrupulous providers to provide it to him. So these 5 people.
Some were distributing it, some were teaching his at-home, live-in personal assistant how to actually administer it, and that person was not a healthcare provider with no medical training.
They, in the, you know, the short period, maybe like a month or so prior to his death, he had been.
buying dozens of vials, and a ketamine vial typically costs about $12 a vial. They were charging Matthew Perry $2,000 a vial in that one month leading up to his death, it has been reported that he spent.
$55,000 on ketamine alone. That's not prior. That's not including prior. Who knows what they got out of him?
The last actual legitimate ketamine treatment that he received, appropriately supervised under medical care, was about a week and a half before his death. So, it would not still be at the levels in his toxicology report as part of his autopsy upon his death.
So that is not what would have, um, showed up in that report, right?
A friend of Matthew Perry was charged with the conspiracy to distribute, as well as Dr. Mark Chavez.
His live-in assistant pleaded guilty and will be sentenced on November 19th, 2025, and faces up to 15 years. That's the one that had no medical training, and it has been reported that before he left the house to do errands or things for his.
Boss Matthew Perry, that Matthew Perry said, shoot me up with a big one.
When he returned back home, Matthew was obviously found, you know, unresponsive in his pool.
A few other people who are implicated in this case are Dr. Salvador Placencia, Santa Monica area doctor.
As well as Jasveen Sangha, who was referred to as the proverbial ketamine queen.
And they face trial August 19th. They used coded language in their text to each other, things like Dr. Pepper and things like this is a way to, I suppose, to keep it.
In their informal encrypted way, not like appropriately encrypted the way it should be for medical data, but that was their way of communicating with each other and attempting to keep it private, I guess?
But it's so sad that somebody so vulnerable and in need of help and support, and we have a lot of personal information on Matthew Perry leading up to this. He wrote a book and talked about it. He had almost died, was in an ICU, you know, um, one of the few people who survived.
receiving the treatment in that ICU when he woke up and, you know, his family members were there, his parents were divorced, but they were both there with their, you know, current spouses, and he was like, wow, you know.
They're both here, this must have been bad, and to just so sadly die after that because of greedy, unethical healthcare providers. It's really disturbing. Not because he's famous and wealthy.
But because it can happen to him, it can happen to anyone.
And sadly, you might be surprised to know this, but sometimes the wealthiest people can actually get the worst care. And you might be surprised to hear that, because you think, oh, they have money, and they have access to anything, but sadly, they will find these unethical.
Unscrupulous, greedy people who will take advantage of them and push, you know, procedures and medications and things on them, and in this circumstance, they could just keep selling ketamine. They… one of them even had to, like, go to, um, their supplier and request, like, hundreds of vials more than they normally do.
And if you can connect with just even one ethical person, it can be ultimately devastating.
The texts and information. That was shared publicly with the media. Things like, this is the one that really broke me and got me as a nurse, and someone who thinks my ultimate duty is to patients, was how much money do you think we can get out of this moron?
He's not a moron, a talented actor who has made many of us laugh through the years.
And sadly, he was taken advantage of when so vulnerable and so in need of help and support, and so open about his past.
you know, um, attempts at sobriety, his past. disturbing experience with substance use disorder, and needed support, needed providers to say, Matthew, we can't do this for you, we can keep giving you ketamine, and we hope that it helps, but, you know, let's do it the right way supervised, and you know what other treatments can we give? What other things can help support you in this time of recovery?
And it seems that, you know, like many people who suffer from substance use disorder, he had a lot of peaks and valleys.
And unfortunately, just finding that one group of unethical people.
They took advantage of them, and it was ultimately devastating.
Now, these texts that I refer to, separate than the ones I'm talking about where they're using coded language, like Dr. Pepper and all that, um.
you know, it might be a much lesser issue, right, in the big picture of what happened. He ultimately died due to poor medical care and unethical treatment.
But they're talking about him on text. Is this encrypted the right way? Like according to medical standards, the way, like, medical records are supposed to be? Is it following HIPAA?
Doubtful, but it just goes to the argument of their ethical duties not being at the forefront of their profession and their practice as physicians.
And sadly, that. resulted in his untimely death.
He spoke very publicly about his struggles and helped a lot of people, even when you're struggling, you can help people, especially when you're in times of sobriety and doing well and feeling healthy.
And he had, um, you know, an institute where people were trying to get sober at, so he was very involved in that community, which is, as many people who have dealt with this.
themselves or with loved ones know that the community is a vital part of that.
So, I just wanted to talk about it briefly and discuss how sad and, you know, disturbing it can be, and us as healthcare providers must always put patients, even if they're not our particular patient, right? They're asking us for something, you know, this is, you know, one of the worst things that you can really do, and really disturbing.
And it violated many ethical principles and the Nursing Code of Ethics.
And we can all learn from it and use this case to inspire hopefully future generations of healthcare clinicians.
So feel free to reach out, let me know any questions or thoughts.
happy to discuss. Thank you so much for listening to the Medical Legal Podcast. If you enjoyed the show, please take a moment to leave a review on Apple Podcasts. It really helps more listeners find the show.
And if you know someone who would find these stories compelling and interesting, share the podcast with them. Until next time, stay curious, stay informed, and take care. And to all my healthcare clinician listeners, always remember to practice in the best interests of every single patient.
Thank you.
