Pharmacist Fatally Overdosed Dog With Drugs From Hospital

BEL AIR, MD — A pharmacist from Bel Air has pleaded guilty after police say he took drugs from the hospital where he worked and used them to overdose and kill his dog.

On July 1, Ryan Kenneth Ball, 38, pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated animal cruelty and one count of obtain prescription by fraud.

Harford County sheriff's deputies were called on July 17, 2024, about controlled dangerous substances found in a trash can.

Deputies found syringes and two prescription vials. One vial’s label was stripped, but was determined to be rocuronium, and the other was labeled succinylcholine, according to the Harford County State's Attorney's Office.

The caller told investigators they took their trash cans in from the night before and found the vials at the bottom of their trash can. Other homeowners spoke to deputies, who learned a neighbor’s dog, Louie, a six-year-old Plott hound, had just passed away and the dog’s owner was a pharmacist.

Ball was identified as the dog's owner, prosecutors said.

Harford County Animal Control officers learned Ball did not like the dog and that he had tried to pay others to take Louie.

When investigators learned the animal had been taken to a local veterinarian for cremation, they were able to stop the process, the county attorney's office said.

The dog's body then was sent to the Pennsylvania State University Animal Diagnostic Laboratory for a necropsy to determine the cause of death. The director of the veterinary forensics program discovered an area of hemorrhage near the jugular grove of the animal and sent tissue samples to the Michigan State University Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory for testing.

The toxicological testing revealed Louie’s heart blood contained 2,400 ng/mL of rocuronium and less than 5 ng/g of succinylcholine. The Penn State University veterinary director determined that Louie’s cause of death was due to an overdose of rocuronium, a neuromuscular blocking agent, prosecutors shared.

Investigators also learned that rocuronium and succinylcholine are two drugs used in intubation in hospital and emergency medical settings. These drugs are used to relax skeletal muscles during surgery so hospital personnel can operate on a patient. These drugs can decrease breathing and other vital processes to the extent that death will happen if ventilation is not supported.

The Penn State University director said the concentration of rocuronium in Louie's heart blood was similar to those reported in humans under full surgical anesthesia and would have resulted in near-complete neuromuscular paralysis with respiratory failure and death within several minutes of intravenous injection.

Other pharmacy experts consulted during the investigation found that if a patient, such as Louie, were administered these drugs without respiratory support or sedatives, the patient would experience “awareness with paralysis” and would be conscious as the drugs took effect.

Detectives learned that Ball was a licensed pharmacist at Upper Chesapeake Medical Center. Records provided by Upper Chesapeake showed that the two vials found in the trash can were prescription drugs ordered by the hospital for routine use.

Upper Chesapeake places warning labels on these drugs stating: “Warning: Paralyzing agent. Patient must be ventilated. Causes respiratory arrest.” It was ultimately determined that Ball used his access at Upper Chesapeake Medical Center to obtain the drugs and take them home, prosecutors stated.

Ball was sentenced to five years, all suspended but one year at the Harford County Detention Center and ordered that he be prohibited from owning any animals while on probation. Ball also was referred to the Board of Pharmacy for a review of his license.

“Medical professionals in this county are placed in a position of extreme trust. Utilizing your license and position in a local hospital to illegally obtain medications and improperly administer them to kill your family dog is a gross violation of the trust placed in this defendant in his position as a medical professional. Holding the defendant accountable in this case is important in deterring him and others from future misuse of medications available in the capacity of their employment," said State’s Attorney Alison M. Healey after the sentencing.