Doctor who prescribed painkillers that killed three sentenced to 30 years

Dr. Hsiu-Ying "Lisa" Tseng will be over 70 before she has a chance at release

A Los Angeles-area doctor convicted of second-degree murder for prescribing pain killers that killed three patients was sentenced Friday to 30 years to life in prison in a landmark case that many in the medical community believe will create a chilling effect among physicians across the country. Dr. Hsiu-Ying "Lisa" Tseng received the lengthy sentence after she apologized to the families of her dead patients and others who became addicted to prescription drugs under her care.
"I suffer every day from the impact and I will do everything I can to take responsibility," she said. "I have learned a very hard lesson on this that will stay with me forever."
That did little to sway Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge George Lomeli, who said Tseng wrote reckless prescriptions even after learning her patients were dying.
"(She's) a person who seemingly did not care about the lives of her patients in this case but rather appeared more concerned about distributing dangerous controlled substances in an assembly line fashion so as to collect payments which amounted to her amassing several million dollars," Lomeli said.
Although twelve of her patients died, but she was charged with just three murders because other factors were involved in the other deaths, including drugs prescribed by other doctors and a possible suicide. The mother of two children, 8 and 11, will be over 70 before she has a chance at release. She had asked Lomeli for a 15-year prison term.
Prescription drug abuse has skyrocketed in recent years. Opioids — primarily prescription painkillers and heroin — were factors in more than 28,000 deaths across the U.S. in 2014, and opioid overdoses have more than quadrupled since 2000, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.