BEND, Ore. (AP) -- Lawyers for the Bend doctor accused of causing a patient's death are arguing that it was nurses who gave the man too many painkillers.

Attorneys for Doctor Anthony Hinz also say that the patient's alcohol use might have been a factor in his death.

Hinz is facing a $9.7 million wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family of Stephen Brenn.

They say it was Hinz's prescription of excess amounts of painkillers that killed Brenn just hours after elective ankle surgery in 2006 at St. Charles Medical Center-Bend.

Lawyers for the Brenn family say that nurses were just following the doctor's orders.