Doctor won't face criminal charges in Rebecca Riley case, DA says
By Patricia Wen
Globe Staff
The child psychiatrist of 4-year-old Rebecca Riley, who died of an overdose of psychiatric drugs, will not be criminally prosecuted in the girl's death, clearing one of several legal hurdles that the doctor faces in connection to the child's death.
Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy J. Cruz today announced that a grand jury has declined to indict Dr. Kayoko Kifuji of Tufts Medical Center. Kifuji had treated the Hull girl for bipolar disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder since she was 2. When the girl died on Dec. 13, 2006, she was taking three psychotropic medications.
While Rebecca's death cast a harsh spotlight on Kifuji and renewed calls for tighter restrictions on psychiatric drugs for children, Kifuji's lawyers have asserted that she was a compassionate clinician who ordered safe dosages of all medications. Kifuji has said it was the girl's parents who killed their child by dispensing the fatal levels of drugs. Michael and Carolyn Riley face murder charges for what prosecutors say was a pattern of over-medicating their daughter in an effort to sedate her.
Soon after Rebecca died, the Board of Registration in Medicine began an investigation, and Kifuji voluntarily suspended her practice.
"The next step for her will be the reinstatement of her license to practice medicine," said her lawyer, Bruce Singal of Boston, today.
Kifuji also faces a medical malpractice suit filed by the administrator of the girl's estate. In that case, Kifuji is accused, among other things, of poor oversight of the girl's medications and ignoring reports from Rebecca's school that she often seemed overly drugged and too tired.
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How on earth can anyone responsibly diagnose a 2 year old with a serious psychiatric disorder? I don't believe that the doctor should be criminally charged, but for her sake there had better be some good evidence that this child was seriously ill and not just a normal child with parents who did not know how to deal with typical toddler behavior. How tragic all around.
Medication since she was Two?????????????????????
I would like to use every curse word I can think of to express my amazement at this story, but I know I cannot. How can a toddler even be diagnosed as BI-POLAR, let alone be treated with DRUGS??? -- are the parents, the "doctor" and the district attorney's office all out of their minds? OMG
Of course she won't face charges...typical protection of medical providers who deem themselves immune to malpractice/wrongdoing arguing that medicine is not a perfect science, somehow implying that if a medical doctor fails to recognize potential problems, it is somehow different than other practitioners, workers, etc. missing key elements of what they are trained to recognize. That is ridiculous. It is horrendous that this child was diagnosed with Bipolar in the first place at age 2! She should have her medical license revoked for that alone. Fact: behavioral issues in children almost always involve the family system and I would hope that family therapy was a component to complement this child's "care."
I'm sorry, there was a PATTERN of "oversedating" this child? Whose responsibilty is it to address poor parental supervision and/or potential neglect? It is the physician's responsibility to monitor. I wouldn't be surprised if potential side effects were never explained to these parents since MDs just throw meds at you and expect the problem to go away.
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