Brian Nadler, the former Hawkesbury doctor acquitted this week of four counts of first-degree murder, is facing a lawsuit from the family of an elderly patient, who allege Nadler administered lethal drugs after nurses on staff refused to do so, ultimately resulting in 89-year-old Albert Poidinger’s death.
The estate of Albert Poidinger is seeking $1 million in compensatory and general damages, as well as $400,000 in settlements to four of Poidinger’s family members.
The claim was filed in April 2023 against Nadler, the Hawkesbury hospital and several named and unnamed nurses and comes even as Nadler launches his own lawsuit against the hospital and several of its staff.
The Poidinger claim alleges Albert Poidinger contracted COVID-19 in the Hawkesbury hospital after he had been admitted for a urinary tract infection, and Nadler “ordered and administered medications that he knew were not indicated and would likely cause Albert’s death.” It further alleges Nadler asked for a magnet in order to stop the elderly man’s pacemaker after delivering a lethal dose of medication.
The on-shift nurses, meanwhile, “refused to administer medications they knew were not indicated and would likely be lethal to Albert,” but supplied Nadler with the doses “several times before advising the nursing supervisor and calling the police.”
The Poidinger claim also alleges Nadler closed the door to Poidinger’s room and wouldn’t allow anyone inside while he administered a final dose of hydromorphone and midazolam.
The claims in the Poidinger lawsuit have not been tested in court.
The claim says Poidinger’s granddaughter, Monika Poidinger, was at the hospital that evening, and “was confused and afraid for her grandfather” when she found the door to the room was closed.
Albert Poidinger died shortly after midnight on March 26, and police arrived a short time later, charging Nadler with first-degree murder.
In a statement of defence to the Poidinger lawsuit, Nadler says Poidinger’s condition was deteriorating by March 24, and he was “confused and unable to self-report pain,” though he was conscious.
On the evening of March 25, the statement of defence reads, Nadler “appropriately ordered” palliative medication and later that evening, the doctor contacted Poidinger’s family and told them he was rapidly declining, and Monika Poidinger was told to come to the hospital.
Nadler also denied requesting a magnet to stop Poidinger’s pacemaker.
Furthermore, the Nadler satement of claim alleges police were called and he was arrested before Poidinger had died.
In his statement of defence, Nadler maintains Poidinger died due to COVID-19, in conjunction with pre-existing health issues, “and not in any way causally related to the medication ordered or administered by Dr. Nadler.”
Nadler, meanwhile, has launched his own $20-million lawsuit against the Hawkesbury Hospital and 12 staff members, alleging they made “false, misleading, inaccurate, and/or defamatory statements” to police.
Nadler, his mother, Susan Epstein, and his sister, Erica Nadler, are all listed as plaintiffs in Nadler’s lawsuit, which was first filed in March 2023.
The Hawkesbury and District General Hospital, along with the senior staffers, doctors and nurses named in the Nadler lawsuit, filed a statement of defence in April 2024.
In his lawsuit, Nadler is claiming $15 million in “general and special damages,” $1 million in “aggravated” damages and an additional $2 million in “punitive” damages.
His mother and sister are each claiming $1 million under allowances in the Family Law Act.
The Nadler lawsuit claims damages for “defamation, intrusion upon seclusion, breach of contract, breach of duty of good faith in contractual performance, wrongful dismissal, negligence… abuse of process, misrepresentation, conspiracy, inducing breach of contract, and/or tortious interference…”
The Nadler lawsuit further alleges staff participated in “negligent investigation, negligent supervision (and) negligent infliction of emotional distress.”
The allegations contained in Nadler’s statement of claim and the hospital’s statement of defence have not been tested in court.
In his lawsuit, Nadler claims the individual hospital staffers contacted police on March 25, 2021 and “made false, misleading, inaccurate, and/or defamatory statements to the OPP concerning the plaintiff, Brian Nadler.”
Police arrested Nadler that same day.
He was eventually charged with four counts of first-degree murder and four corresponding counts of criminal negligence causing the deaths of Poidinger; Claire Brière, 80; Lorraine Lalande, 79; and Judith Lungulescu, 93 — all elderly patients at the Hawkesbury & District General Hospital, where Nadler worked as an internal medicine specialist at the time.
All four elderly patients in his care had been admitted to hospital with COVID-19 during a “preventable” outbreak in the hospital, according to Nadler’s statement of claim.
Nadler and his criminal defence team have long maintained that he provided “exemplary” care to his patients and that all four died of causes related to COVID-19.
Following his acquittal on Tuesday, Nadler’s lead defence lawyer, Brian Greenspan, said postmortem exams of the four deceased determined they died of COVID-19 or had pre-existing conditions before contracting the virus in the midst of an outbreak of the Delta variant at the Hawkesbury hospital.
Nadler is represented in his civil lawsuit by lawyer Jordan Goldblatt and the Toronto-based Adair Goldblatt Bieber law firm.
Nadler further alleges in his lawsuit that the individual defendants, “on their own behalf or on behalf of the hospital, provided false, misleading, inaccurate and/or defamatory statements, documents, and/or information to the OPP as part of its investigation into Dr. Nadler’s conduct.”
There are 12 Hawkesbury Hospital staff members named in the Nadler lawsuit, including its CEO, its physician chief of staff, chief of the hospital’s general medicine department, nursing administrators, nurses, clinical directors and other senior staffers.
According to Nadler’s allegations, hospital staff, “without lawful basis… reported to 911 and then to the police that Dr. Nadler was murdering patients.
“This purportedly urgent report to the police was made while hospital staff did nothing in respect of the patient care that Dr. Nadler was providing. The defendants’ failure to take any contemporaneous step to attend to any patient they accused Dr.Nadler of ‘murdering’ is shocking and belies any suggestion they actually believed Dr. Nadler was acting wrongfully, let alone criminally.”
The lawsuit claims that Nadler’s patients “died during a preventable Covid-19 outbreak at the hospital.”
Nadler claims he raised “legitimate concerns” with administrators about admitting “seriously ill, vulnerable ER patients to wards that were in the midst of a Covid-19 outbreak…”
According to his lawsuit, the hospital “removed” Nadler from the hospital “in the most devastating way possible: by alleging he was endangering patient safety by trying to kill patients.”
Nadler and his family have “suffered from the extreme stigma and hardship of having to live under the burden of responding to these charges, which have received significant public attention,” Nadler’s lawsuit states.
The lawsuit alleges that one nurse “set off a series of events that ultimately led to Dr. Nadler being charged with murder.”
Nadler claims the nurse made statements to other staffers that “put in motion the series of occurrences that led to his arrest.”
The nurse’s statements, according to the lawsuit, “were the result of (the nurse’s) uninformed and incorrect understanding of palliative care, especially in respect of appropriate dose escalations, and when considering the unique challenges caused by COVID-19.”
The lawsuit states that Nadler “provided his patients with appropriate palliative care… in the midst of a horrible and preventable Covid-19 outbreak.”
The lawsuit further alleges the defendants waged “an unlawful campaign designed to cause harm to Dr. Nadler.”
The Hawkesbury hospital filed its notice of intent to defend the lawsuit in December 2023 and filed its statement of defence on April 5.
The defendants “deny each allegation contained in the statement of claim and put the plaintiffs to the strict proof thereof,” the legal briefing responding to Nadler’s claims reads. “The hospital defendants further deny the entitlement of the plaintiffs to the damages alleged…”
The hospital also denied Nadler’s allegation that the defendants were in a “hostile” relationship with Nadler.
“Contrary to the allegations… the hospital defendants were not in a hostile relationship with Dr. Nadler, nor did they orchestrate a campaign to harm him in any way as a result of alleged disagreements about isolation protocols.”
The statement of defence claims that Nadler “began to exhibit concerning behaviour” in March 2021.
“He was reportedly not sleeping or eating. He sent bizarre and troubling emails to physicians. His communications seemed paranoid and grandiose,” the statement of defence claims.
The hospital further claims that Nadler’s allegations of defamation are “unfounded.”
Nadler was acquitted on Tuesday of the criminal charges he faced.
After a key expert witness was disqualified from testifying at trial, Crown prosecutors elected to call no evidence on behalf of the prosecution. Superior Court Justice Kevin Phillips then entered an acquittal on all charges.
The Crown has already suggested it will appeal the acquittal and will request a new criminal trial.
Greenspan said Tuesday that Nadler’s legal team would “respond to an appeal accordingly.”
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