A recent order from a Los Angeles court should help shine some light on problems detected in the production of a fentanyl pain patch manufactured by prescription drug maker Watson Pharmaceuticals Inc.

In a March 11 ruling, Judge Richard E. Rico ordered Watson to produce company documents and emails requested by Dallas attorney Michael Heygood of the Dallas firm Heygood, Orr & Pearson as part of a lawsuit filed by the parents of California woman who died within hours of applying a Watson fentanyl patch. The judge also has ordered Watson to make employees and corporate representatives available for depositions between April 11 and June 11. Watson and the company’s lawyers had denied requests for the documents and testimony for more than a year.

Heygood represents the family of Nicole Bristol, 37, who died in 2008 after applying a fentanyl patch that allowed a lethal amount of the drug to leak onto her skin, according to the lawsuit.

Although the package insert in Ms. Bristol’s prescription said she should have received 1.7 ng/ml of fentanyl, autopsy results showed that she died with 15 ng/ml in her system. Fentanyl has been found to be lethal at a blood level of 3 ng/ml, with an average lethal concentration of 8 ng/ml. The drug, which is up to 100 times more powerful than morphine, is often prescribed for chronic pain.

Heygood brings a unique track record to the Bristol case, having won a $5.5 million verdict in the nation’s first federal trial involving a fentanyl death, and a $16.5 million verdict for the family of an Illinois mother of three who died after using a fentanyl patch.