Wrongful death lawsuit settled in Lenawee County

3/21/2001

ADRIAN - A wrongful death trial set to begin yesterday in Lenawee County Circuit Court will instead be settled by arbitration.

Dr. Jeffrey Askanazi, a Greenville pain specialist who formerly worked in Adrian, was facing a civil trial in the 1997 death of John Farmer of Marcellus. Mr. Farmer's widow initiated the lawsuit, alleging that a spinal injection administered by Askanazi at Bixby Medical Center led to Mr. Farmer's paralysis and eventual death.

Former Michigan Attorney General Frank Kelley suspended Askanazi's license to practice in April, 1998, saying that the doctor put patients' lives at risk.

Askanazi is serving a three-year prison term in a West Virginia federal prison for 1999 insurance fraud convictions.

No date for an arbitration hearing has been set, according to the Michigan Attorney General's office.