Joseph Torchia’s wife and son claim in a lawsuit filed in Waterbury Superior Court that Alfonso, who was recently charged by federal prosecutors with accepting kickbacks from a drug company, prescribed “unlawfully high” doses of narcotics to Torchia for more than a year, ignoring signs that he was suffering from liver cirrhosis, gallbladder disease, internal bleeding and narcotics’ dependency.

The suit alleges that Alfonso’s reckless prescribing weakened Torchia’s medical condition, so that his ability to recover from gallbladder surgery on Jan. 14, 2013, was compromised. He died three weeks after that surgery.

The lawsuit also names as defendants the Comprehensive Pain & Headache Treatment Centers, LLC, where Alfonso worked; the doctor who performed the surgery and his medical practice; and two emergency room physicians who treated Torchia after the surgery.

Attorney James Biondo of Stamford, who is representing Alfonso, said that while it is early in the case, “we expect to file a responsive pleading denying all allegations of improper medical care.” Attorneys for the pain center could not be reached.

Photo By Torchia Family

Joseph Torchia on his son’s boat.

Alfonso, 42, of Middlebury, pleaded guilty last month to receiving $83,000 in kickbacks from January 2013 until March 2015 from a drug company in exchange for prescribing a powerful narcotic used to treat cancer pain. The charge of receiving kickbacks in relation to a federal healthcare program carries a maximum term of imprisonment of five years and a fine of up to $250,000.  She will be sentenced later this year.

C-HIT stories earlier this year identified Alfonso as the state’s highest prescriber of Schedule II narcotics –potent drugs with a high potential for addiction and abuse — in the federal Medicare program. She has since surrendered her licenses to prescribe and has left the Derby pain center. Neither she nor Dr. Mark Thimineur, head of the pain center, has returned messages seeking comment.

Court records, separate from the lawsuit, show Alfonso filed for personal bankruptcy in 2009, claiming assets of $424,600, including a house in Middlebury, and liabilities exceeding $525,000, including $69,000 in credit card debt. She began her job as an advanced practice registered nurse (APRN) at the pain center sometime after that.

The lawsuit makes mention of the kickback allegations, saying that Alfonso took “bribes” in exchange for prescribing “dangerous, potentially deadly” drugs to patients. The federal charges against her involve a potent painkiller called Subsys, which is supposed to be used only for cancer patients, but which Alfonso prescribed to non-cancer patients.

Attorney Tracey Hardman of Middletown, who is representing the Torchia family, said Joseph Torchia suffered from diabetes-related orthopedic and back pain, but was given multiple high-dose prescriptions for narcotics better suited for “a cancer patient who needed palliative care.”

Alfonso “just piled on the narcotics, at increasing doses, and never did any kind of testing or referrals to specialists, as far as we can see from the records,” Hardman said. “For his level of pain, the prescribing was entirely disproportional . . . These (medication) levels are documented to increase internal bleeding and problems with the liver.”

Mathew Torchia, Joseph’s son, said he became suspicious of the pain center and the nurse his father called “Heather” after his father died and he found dozens of pill bottles in his father’s house. He said his father was an upbeat, outgoing man who had been disabled by diabetes after working as an EMT and a real estate agent. The elder Torchia collected coins and called Bingo games at the complex where he lived with his wife of 36 years, Shawn.

“He was such a good man – he didn’t deserve to be treated like this, like a toy,” said Mathew, 34. “He was the kind of guy who would just trust whatever his doctors said, that they knew best.”

When he discovered all the bottles of narcotics, Mathew said, “I knew something was wrong. I thought, ‘I can’t even believe a human being could survive this.’”

Photo By Torchia Family

Joseph and Mathew Torchia.

Court records include a statement from a nurse practitioner who reviewed Joseph Torchia’s prescription records. The nurse concluded that “the level of medications that Heather Alfonso prescribed to this patient, including but not limited to multiple controlled substances (as many as 3-4 at a time)…was excessive. It was particularly egregious to continue prescribing medications that are listed in this case once Mr. Torchia was diagnosed with liver cirrhosis” in 2012.

The lawsuit alleges that the pain center failed to ensure that its employees were following proper procedures in administering medications, and that Thimineur “negligently supervised, retained and hired Alfonso.”

The suit also charges Dr. Aurangzeb Ali, a surgeon at Surgical Associates of Meriden, with malpractice for failing to take proper care of Torchia before, during and after the gallbladder surgery. In addition, it alleges that emergency room physicians failed to provide proper care to Torchia when he sought help Jan. 18 and was sent home with an oral antibiotic. He returned to the hospital Jan. 25 with sepsis, a complication of an infection, and remained there until he died.

Attorney Donna R. Zito of Rocky Hill, representing Ali and Surgical Associates, said her clients “categorically deny all allegations of negligence or wrongdoing asserted by the plaintiffs” and would prove their case in court.

Annemarie Morrissey of West Hartford is suing the hospital for breach of implied contract of employment, violation of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing, wrongful discharge in violation of public policy, negligent infliction of emotional distress, and defamation. She has requested a jury trial and is waiting to hear if one will be granted.

In court documents, the hospital denies the allegations. Fiona Phelan, a St. Francis spokeswoman, said this week that hospital officials will not comment on the case as it is still pending.

The case has been in the court system for two years but court records show a flurry of motions and responses have been filed this year after hospital officials requested a summary judgment (when a decision is made without a trial) several months ago in Hartford Superior Court.

Morrissey and Henry Jacobs, her attorney, are fighting that motion, seeking a jury trial.

The dispute dates back to June 2012 when Morrissey had been a nurse at St. Francis for 32 years.

According to court filings by Jacobs, a cardiac patient arrived at St. Francis’ emergency room in unstable condition, having been transported from Manchester Hospital. The ambulance crew took Manchester Hospital’s pacemaker equipment with them when they left, meaning the patient was “not paced.”

The patient was taken to St. Francis’ Cardiac Intensive Care Unit with a pacer wire hanging from his neck, not connected to a pacemaker, according to Morrissey and court documents.  An external pacemaker was attached but his vital signs were “critical,” according to the nurse’s legal complaint against the hospital.

Annemarie Morrissey

Morrissey claims in the court documents that she was asked to help because of her expertise. That’s when she tried to plug the patient’s pacer wire into the pacer and realized it wouldn’t fit because the wire had a plastic sheath on the end of it, to adapt it to Manchester Hospital’s pacer unit.

The nurse, with help from others, cut back the plastic and was able to plug the wire into St. Francis’ pacemaker. The patient immediately began pacing and his vital signs returned to normal, according to the court filings.

The next day, the filings say, the pacer wire malfunctioned, although the patient survived. Morrissey said after the incident she was forced to resign. She said a doctor had previously checked the wire and signed off on it, saying it didn’t need to be replaced and was working properly. She also claims that blame for the wire malfunctioning was unfairly placed solely on her.

The patient passed away last year, Morrissey said.

In an interview this week, Morrissey said the hospital first fired her and then subsequently allowed her to resign, allowing her to retain certain benefits. She said she was suspended the same day the incident occurred and forced to leave her job soon after, without a formal investigation into the matter.  Her lawsuit was filed in November 2012.

In the court documents, the hospital denies wrongdoing. The hospital, in response to Morrissey’s claim that she responded to an emergency to save a man’s life, said, “the defendants lack sufficient knowledge or information upon which to form a belief and therefore leave the plaintiff to her proof.’’

Morrissey is seeking punitive damages of $2.5 million. Among other accusations, she says the hospital’s action has “forced” her to take an entry-level job at another hospital that pays about half what she made at St. Francis. She says she has suffered anxiety and sleeplessness and that her reputation has been damaged.

“I was devastated,” she said. “It was my whole life, St. Francis. I enjoyed my job, I enjoyed my patients. (The termination) made me question everything, who I was. I don’t feel that I did anything wrong.”

St. Francis officials, in court documents, said the nurse fails to make a case warranting compensation. Hospital officials also deny “any and all liability” in regard to the defamation accusations. That includes Morrissey’s claim that she was accused of exceeding the scope of her job, jeopardizing a patient’s life and violating policy.

Morrissey said the tactic she used in her efforts to save the patient was “unconventional, but I don’t feel it was harmful to the patient in any way.”

“We’re very pleased with the outcome in the legislative arena as well as the courts,” said Dr. Gina Carucci, president of the Connecticut Chiropractic Association.

The legislative victory centers on Connecticut’s use-of-name statute, which mandates that “No person shall practice as a chiropractor under any name other than the name of the chiropractor actually owning the practice or a corporate name containing the name or names of such chiropractors.” A bill just passed by the General Assembly eliminates that requirement while still mandating that licensed chiropractors display their names at the entrance to their business. The bill also grants amnesty to chiropractors found in violation of the use-of-name law.

In action now made moot by the new legislation, Victims of Chiropractic Abuse (VOCA) had identified close to 500 chiropractors that it claimed were in violation of the use-of-name statute. The list included three members of the Board of Chiropractic Examiners, the panel that regulates chiropractors in Connecticut. The group submitted the list to the Department of Public Health, which initiated an investigation.

VOCA President Janet Levy called the legislative changes “shameful.” Noting that transparency in the use of a practice name is intended to protect the public, she said, “Those who are supposed to enforce the law have been breaking it, and the answer is not only to change the law but to give the violators amnesty.”

Carucci, who testified in support of the bill, said the changes were needed to “more accurately reflect the many multidisciplinary practices that exist.”

The second victory for chiropractors involves a lawsuit filed by VOCA against two chiropractic associations, the Connecticut Chiropractic Association and the Connecticut Chiropractic Council. The lawsuit, filed a year ago, charges, in part, that chiropractors don’t adequately inform patients about the risks associated with certain neck adjustments.

Earlier this month a Superior Court judge found that VOCA lacked standing to file the suit and dismissed the case. Levy said VOCA is reviewing its legal options. “We remain steadfast in our commitment to pursing informed consent for health care consumers so that they can make fully informed decisions,” she said.

Acknowledging that the case was dismissed on technical rather that substantive grounds, Carucci said the Department of Public Health held an administrative hearing a year ago on the safety of certain chiropractic techniques. It determined that patients who undergo these procedures don’t face a heightened risk, she said.