Utah Justices: Doctors Should Consider Impact on Family

Utah’s Supreme Court has ruled that lawyers can pursue a lawsuit seeking to hold doctors responsible for the actions of a man who fatally shot his wife while under their care.

The justices said medical providers need to consider the consequences of the drugs they prescribe and the broader impact a patient’s treatment may have on a family.

The ruling overturned a lower court decision and allows a lawsuit by the children of Kristy and David Ragsdale to proceed against the medical providers who prescribed antidepressants to the children’s father.

Kristy Ragsdale, 30, was gunned down by her husband outside a Lehi church in 2008 in front of the two children, ages 4 and 19 months at the time.

David Ragsdale pleaded guilty to the murder and is serving a life sentence. He claimed he would not have shot his wife if he hadn’t been taking a mixture of psychotropic drugs.

Justice Thomas Lee, who wrote the court’s opinion, said considering the dangers of a prescription or treatment should be part of a doctor’s analysis.

The children’s conservator sued their father’s medical providers, but a state judge threw out the case in January 2010. The appeal was argued before justices in November.