A Houston-area doctor is accused of causing the wrongful death of two Texas men by fraudulently issuing prescriptions. Despite the impending litigation and the several additional claims against him, the doctor has retained his medical license.

Dr. John Edward Perry III is a cardiologist who allegedly had medical practices in three Texas cities, all of which illegally distributed prescription drugs. In The Woodlands, Perry was the medical director for a medical supply business that ordered unnecessary arthritis kits, overbilling Medicaid $1.7 million in the process. In Houston Heights, Perry ran a high-volume clinic, otherwise known as a 'pill mill', at which poor people were commissioned by drug lords to get prescriptions for drugs that were saleable on the black market. And in Beaumont, cash-paying patients purchased pre-signed prescriptions for a variety of medications.

It was at the Beaumont clinic where two men, Chris Scarborough and Jeffrey Lee, obtained prescriptions for the 'Trio', a deadly and widely abused combination of the anti-anxiety drug Xanax, the muscle relaxer carisoprodol, and the painkiller hydrocodone. Both men died in 2007 of accidental overdoses. Their families have filed civil wrongful death lawsuits against Perry.

When Chris Scarborough's parents discovered his lifeless body on Sept. 23, 2007, they also found three bottles containing more than 200 prescription pills. Although he had never examined Scarborough, Perry had prescribed all of the medication that ultimately killed the 25-year-old.

Pain specialist Dr. Andrea Trescot, who was hired as an expert by the victims' families, found that Perry had "no legitimate medical purpose" to prescribe the Trio combination to either Scarborough or Lee. She concluded that Perry was "prescribing potentially lethal medications with a blatant disregard for human life,"

Perry's 2010 felony conviction for Medicaid fraud allows the Texas Medical Board the authority to suspend his medical license. However, the board has yet to act.

Although the Scarboroughs admit that Chris had a drug addiction dating back to his 17th birthday, when a friend's mother had given him Xanax, they know that his death was avoidable. "It's greed," said Esther Scarborough, Chris' mother. "Greed is what drives this."

Source: Houston Chronicle, "A licensed 'threat to public welfare'", Lise Olsen, 4 October 2010