A Washington state doctor charged in the poisoning death of his wife allegedly gave her so many painkillers that she hallucinated a frog crawling on her bedroom wall, the woman’s daughter testified in a Manhattan court on Thursday.
Dr Jeffrey Harris, 59, is on trial for murder in Manhattan Supreme Court five years after his wife of 11 years died at Lenox Hill Hospital in February 2018 during a visit to New York City – in what was later ruled a murder.
An autopsy found Tammy Harris, 55, had overdosed on Selenium supplements, which prosecutors say were given to her by her husband’s doctor – who allegedly dosed her with a cocktail of drugs in an attempt to treat the mysterious aches and pains she was experiencing. started experiencing in 2017.
“There was one night where Jeff gave mom so much pain medication that she started seeing frogs jumping on her wall in the bedroom,” Tammy’s 41-year-old daughter from a previous marriage, Sarah Hopkins-Hubbard, testified on Thursday, in the second experiment.
Although many doctors diagnosed Tammy with lupus, Jeffrey, who specializes in internal medicine, refused to believe that determination and began treating her himself – allegedly directly causing her death on February 28, 2018, prosecutors said.
Dr Jeffrey Harris charged with manslaughter after homemade treatment for his wife’s medical condition allegedly killed her.Steven Hirsch
Hopkins-Hubbard, who lives in Oregon, testified in harrowing detail how her mother’s health deteriorated – but even after a stint at a Spokane hospital, Jeffrey refused to provide proper treatment and maintained a steady regimen of homeopathic medicine.
“Mum has been turning yellow and turning orange for about three weeks. The yellow-orange color is getting worse,” he said, explaining that Tammy had lost so much weight that she weighed only about 100 pounds.
His gums, Hopkins-Hubbard, said, “started to turn black.”
Tammy Harris’ daughter Sarah Hopkins-Hubbard testified that her family trusted Harris to treat their mother because he was a doctor. Steven Hirsch
In response, Jeffrey allegedly prescribed her 20 coriander seeds a day, among other drugs, because he didn’t think the hospital could properly care for his wife, his stepson testified.
“You can’t count how many pills [I was administering her],” Hopkins-Hubbard told jurors, adding that Jeffrey’s behavior baffled her.
“I’m obviously concerned. He is a doctor — and I live with them. And you come at him like, ‘Why are you giving him so much that he’s going to hallucinate?’ Like, knowing you’re a doctor and knowing how much to prescribe when it gets dangerous. I just don’t understand.”
Harris refused to believe the diagnosis of many doctors that his wife had Lupus, and treated it himself.Steven Hirsch
Jeffrey and Tammy, married for 11 years, finally traveled to the Big Apple in early 2018, looking for an alternative medicine practice to expand his treatment.
The group they met with, the Salerno Center, even advised against taking the Selenium dose Jeffrey gave his wife, prosecutors said.
During the trip, Tammy faints at their hotel, and Jeffrey takes her to the hospital.
Tammy and Jeffrey Harris have been married for 11 years.
He died six days later.
Her death was ruled a homicide in 2019 — with the Medical Examiner’s Office finding she had 10 times the recommended dose of Selenium in her system, according to prosecutors.
In November 2021, Jeffrey was indicted on a charge of second-degree murder.
Prosecutors claimed that Tammy’s condition was perfectly treatable, but that Jeffrey “recklessly caused” her death through his attempts to cure her.
Testimony is set to continue Friday, with the trial expected to last several weeks.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
