In the second death anniversary of WWE wrestler Chris Benoit, the family of his wife filed a suit against his doctor for malpractice and for causing the death of Chris and his family. The wrestler committed suicide after killing his wife and two children in 2007. Nancy’s parents, Maureen and Paul Toffoloni filed the wrongful-death lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Newnan, Georgia.

Benoit’s personal physician, Dr. Phil Carroll Astin III is currently serving a 10-year sentence for medical infractions specifically for illegal dispensing of drugs. Dr. Astin pleaded guilty to writing 175 illegal prescriptions for 19 patients which include two that died of drug overdoses. These patients were Mike “Johnny Grunge” Dunham and the other one was believed to be Sherry “Sensational Sherri” Russell. Some of the illegal prescriptions made by Astin include drugs such as Percocet, Oxycontin, Xanax and Lorcet to professional wrestlers and other patients who eventually became addicted to them.

In the complaint, Dr. Astin is accused of negligence in the medical care and treatment which caused the death of the wrestler. The doctor also put Chris under the influence of CNS [central nervous system] depressants, opioids and anabolic androgenic steroids from June 2000 to June 2007. These painkillers, muscle relaxants, and steroids impaired him mentally and triggered his homicidal and suicidal tendencies.

An affidavit by a sports medicine doctor and a member of WADA’s board, Dr. Gary Wadler, was also included in the suit. Dr. Wadler reviewed the medical records of Chris Benoit. He found out that Dr. Astin prescribed medications without proper diagnosis or monitoring. Dr. Wadler said that the drugs ultimately caused Benoit’s mental, physical, emotional and/or behavioral health to deteriorate to the extent of killing his family. “It is my opinion, to a reasonable degree of medical certainty and medical probability, that Astin was negligent in his care and treatment of Benoit,” said Wadler.

In the report by Irvin Muchnik of Slam Wrestling, there could be three motivations why Nancy’s family filed the lawsuit. First is the hope of recovering monetary damages not from the doctor himself but from his malpractice insurer. “The Toffolonis may be betting on discovery and new evidence generated by a trial to identify the Atlanta area non-licensed pharmaceutical sources.” They have included unnamed distributors in the lawsuit.

Second is “to establish something that was missing from the Astin prosecution: counts involving steroids and human growth hormone (not just painkillers and antidepressants). The network for those substances reaches beyond the doctor himself to the netherworld of online and other black-market dealers, and might involve recreational drugs as well.”

Third is “to use the civil legal system to expose as much as they possibly can about the circumstances that led to the horrific loss of their loved ones.”

In an interview by Muchnik with Nancy’s sister, Sandra Toffoloni said that “We are not money-hungry people and that is not what this is about for us. We have lost everything. Everything. I firmly believe there is responsibility to be taken, not just by Christopher.”

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