12 pm: 68°FSunny

2 pm: 74°FSunny

4 pm: 73°FSunny

6 pm: 67°FMostly Clear

More Weather

Print | E-mail to a friend FEATURED

Doctor's license suspended for giving muscle-paralyzing drug

February 13, 2008 @ 10:41 PM

The Associated Press

The Associated Press

HURRICANE, W.Va. -- A Hurricane physician's medical license has been suspended for six months after he allegedly administered a muscle-paralyzing drug to a critically ill patient.

The West Virginia Board of Medicine also ordered Dr. Sean DiCristofaro to participate in an educational program on end-of-life care.

DiCristofaro administered the drug Norcuron intravenously to a man with gastrointestinal bleeding at Charleston Area Medical Center's Teays Valley Hospital on Jan. 4, 2007. The patient, who was awaiting a liver transplant, died a short time later.

DiCristofaro told the hospital's complaint committee that he made a mistake.

The Marshall University School of Medicine graduate has been licensed to practice medicine in West Virginia since 1999. He could not be reached for comment Wednesday.