Testimony concludes against man convicted of diluting drugs

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Ovarian cancer patient Georgia Hayes wants former pharmacist Robert R. Courtney to have to look at her for a very long time.

Hayes testified Wednesday in her lawsuit against Courtney, who has pleaded guilty to watering down the chemotherapy drugs he prepared for her and other cancer patients.

Courtney faces up to 30 years in prison when he is sentenced later this year on the federal charges.

"If I had my wish, they would paint all of our faces on his cell block wall so that when he goes to sleep at night, we are the last thing he sees and when he wakes up in the morning, we are the first thing he sees," Hayes said.

Tearful jurors

Hayes sometimes cried during her 53 minutes of testimony in Jackson County Circuit Court as she described her fight with cancer from her first diagnosis in 1996 until today. Her testimony in the hushed courtroom left a few jurors wiping their eyes.

Both sides rested after Hayes testified, and closing arguments were planned for Thursday morning.

Hayes, now 44, began showing elevated blood levels of a marker for cancer in 1999. By 2001, surgeons had removed a tumor and part of her colon.

Witnesses disagree

Witnesses called by attorneys for Courtney and Hayes disagreed on whether Hayes had been injured by Courtney's actions.

Oncologist Robert K. Oldham testified that Hayes probably missed her best chance to cure the disease because she received diluted medicine from the pharmacy Courtney operated.

Oldham, who founded the oncology department at Vanderbilt University in Nashville and is medical director at CBA Research Inc., said Hayes was in a good position to fight her cancer before she got Courtney's diluted medications.

Instead, he said, the cancer cells in her body may have become more resistant to treatment because Hayes' medication was only partial strength.

Asked whether he thinks Hayes is going to beat her cancer, Oldham said, "I think she's not, at this point."

Hayes left the courtroom while Oldham discussed her prognosis.

Courtney's attorneys played videotaped depositions from two doctors who questioned whether Hayes is any sicker today because of the watered-down drugs she got.

Dr. Robert Ozols said he would not have given Hayes any chemotherapy when her only symptom was the blood marker. That was around the time Hayes was getting chemotherapy from Courtney.

Instead, he said, he would have waited until she showed other symptoms.

"I do not think that if she received diluted drugs it would have injured her," said Ozols, who is senior vice president of medical science at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia.

Even with full doses of chemotherapy, "she still would have had a recurrence. There's no doubt in my mind," Ozols said.

'No way to say'

Another doctor presented by Courtney's attorneys agreed.

"I certainly don't think that we can say that any alleged dilution shortened her lifespan," said Dr. James Thigpen, professor of medicine at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. "There's no way to say that she's been harmed in any way by any dilution that might have occurred."

Attorneys for Hayes -- a computer technician for special education students in Harrisonville -- are trying to persuade a jury to order Courtney to pay damages to their client. The two sides have agreed that Hayes has suffered $578,881 in lost wages and medical expenses.

Her attorneys did not say how much they would seek in punitive damages.

Even if jurors side with Hayes, Courtney may not be able to pay her anything. Most of his assets, once estimated at $12 million, were seized by the federal government for a victims' fund after he pleaded guilty to criminal charges of adulterating, misbranding and tampering with chemotherapy medications.

He faces 17 1/2 to 30 years in prison when he is sentenced in December.