PRN’s Reynolds’ Senate Testimony Re: Oxycontin Settlement

Blogging on Peer-Reviewed Research

Siobhan Reynolds of the Pain Relief Network Written Testimony to the Senate Committee on “Evaluating the Propriety and Adequacy of the Oxycontin Criminal Settlement;” 2007-07-31.

See also:
When Pain is Chronic – Reynolds, LTE, NYTimes; 2007
Red Flags, and the Standard of Care – DeLuca; 2007

Excerpt:

“Over the last five or so years, US DOJ has engaged in a brutal and systematic campaign to intimidate medical practitioners out of prescribing supposedly legal opioid pain medications. They have imprisoned many skilled and compassionate physicians on trumped up charges, for sentences amounting to three decades or more, (See the New York Times Magazine Cover article, When Is A Pain Doctor a Drug Pusher, June 17, 2007) and have caused thousands more physicians to stop treating their patients’ serious pain. …

“Many people in severe pain, especially those with high dose requirements, have been maimed or killed as a result of this department’s campaign against pain management. But we haven’t, as of yet, seen Senate Judiciary Committee hearings about that ongoing atrocity. Instead, we watch raptly as a mother blames this company for the death of her daughter, a death that, no matter how genuinely heartbreaking, resulted at most from medical negligence. I fail to see why a story of medical malpractice is properly before the Senate Judiciary Committee. What possible value could it have to this committee except to prejudice the committee against this company?

“Government lawyers and their supporters are attempting to influence the Committee just like they do Federal judges and juries, such that if the issue is drugs, then the protective rules of evidence are turned on their heads. As is true in courtrooms throughout the land – whenever drugs are at issue – if the testimony offered by the government is irrelevant and prejudicial, it comes in. It is unfortunate that these perverse tactics are not only employed in Federal courtrooms by Federal prosecutors, but in testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee as well. Prosecutors are leading this country around by the nose and they are doing so through shameless emotional manipulation. …”

[END]

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5 Comments

  1. Comment by:
    Bill

    I was extremely disappointed to see Physician-Senator, Dr. Tom Coburn, (R-OK) call for MORE physician prosecutions and incarcerations for prescribing OxyContin during his questioning of Mr. Brownlee. I had hoped we were making progress within the halls of Congress. It is quite apparent to me now that Congress is FAR, FAR from any sort of good understanding about what the US DOJ is really doing.

  2. Comment by:
    mlang52

    As long as doctors disagree, there will be some that want us hung up on a hook, for practicing acceptable pain medicine! In my experience, if two doctors have different views on medicine, the other doctor, with more political clout, will not be finished until he has your license. The, rampant, ignorance, among doctors, who refuse to read about the modern application of opioids, in pain management, is responsible for the majority winning!! Right now pain managment doctors, who will use high dose opioids are in the minority! Standard of care, in pain management, is not being followed because the majority won’t allow it. And the government is helping maintain the ignorance, by deciding how we should practice medicine! Cops and the ignorant telling us how to practice, YEA, I like it! Hit me again!

    Dr Coburn, obviously is one of those ignorant doctors, who would dictate out of lack of knowledge, by your report!

  3. Comment by:
    FirstLionHeart

    I am one person whose life was NOT destroyed by the drugs the pain management doctors prescribed for me. If it wasn’t for them I would have long since been gone from this world and on to the next. My life was destroyed by an overzealous Orthopedic Surgeon here in Anchorage, Alaska on May 7th 2003. His name is Doctor David A. McGuire. After doing surgery on both of my knees where he said I would easily walk again within 30 days. I never walked again without, crutches, wheelchair, braces on both legs and 360 mg per day of Oxycontin.

    After the surgery Doctor McGuire REFUSED to acknowledge the amount of pain his surgery his surgery had caused and would NOT prescribe any medication other than was given to me post surgery. After a month or so when I was about to go over the edge another doctor I know in Anchorage pleaded with one of his colleagues to see me about my situation. This second doctor agreed to see me and I had my neighbor take me to his office. Upon getting me up on his examination table his first words to me were “Who did this to you?” I told him “Doctor David A. McGuire”; there was a silence after that where I’m sure he was contemplating what his next move was going to be. You see this “Doctor David A. McGuire” is one of these Politically Connected doctors that I’m sure has influence that stretches far beyond the borders of Alaska.

    At any rate this second doctor treated me for about 6 months as things quickly deteriorated. By November of 2003 I was completely disabled, in EXTREME pain and in search of answers as to why I wasn’t getting better. I had another friend of mine who knew a doctor at Orthopedic International at Swedish Medical Center in Seattle and advised me to talk with him. I had accidently come into possession of some MRI films that were done in November 2003 and sent them to his office immediately for review. He called me the next day and said IF I was ever going to walk again I was going to have to come to Seattle to see him. I made the arrangements to get to Seattle and meet with this doctor. At the time he indicated there was OBVIOUS MISTAKES MADE IN MY CASE. As far as elaborating on them to any other authority he was unwilling to do that but would have some custom braces made for me so I could walk and make sure I had a supply of Oxycontin for the next 10 years until such time both of my knees would have to be cut out and replaced.

    I came back to Anchorage with my new braces on both legs and my prescriptions for Oxycontin. Little did I know that was a recipe for DISASTER!! Being under the influence of Oxycontin was fine for the pain but for making life decisions that made any sense it was totally useless. I became this totally useless member of society when before seeing Doctor David A. McGuire I was a productive member of my community, had a beautiful home in East Anchorage and a bright future headed towards early retirement.

    By the end of 2004 the money had run out, no one would hire me for anything, I was behind in the house payments and life itself wasn’t worth living any longer.

    My health insurance had run out and I had no access to medical help. My only avenue was to file for social security disability and hope that that somehow would keep me going. Where I was going I wasn’t sure of, staying alive one day at a time was all I could really concentrate on.

    There was a member in the Labor Union I had belonged to for 30 years that had a plan on how I may be able to get my health benefits back. I had left the house that I could no longer pay for and was headed to Arizona to live around family who had offered to help in any way they could. When I received the call from this friend of mine I continued on to Arizona and dropped off my vehicle and got on a plane back to Alaska immediately. He had a position for me that I could actually do that would last just long enough for me to get my health insurance back. I jumped at the chance and started immediately.

    After the job was over and I got laid off sure enough I had the health insurance I needed to get the medical help I needed. I flew to Arizona where I met a Doctor named Joseph A. DuPont in Phoenix. He told me that all I had gone through was completely unnecessary and also told me the two things that were going to be required for me to get my life back on track and for him to agree to even take my case.

    Cut out both knees and replace them with Titanium Implants Get off the Oxycontin PERMANENTLY

    If I was willing to do both those things he’d help me. December 29th, 2004 he did the bilateral knee replacement surgery required. I spent 6 weeks living in a trailer with my dog Happy during the recovery period where I did as much physical therapy as I could stand. You see, that job I was on that got my health insurance back was going to start back up in Fairbanks, Alaska on March 15, 2005 and I intended to be there with NEW knees, walking and OFF ALL Oxycontin.

    I made it back to Fairbanks, Alaska and the job had not started yet. I was walking as well as expected in my situation and had been Oxycontin free since February 15th, 2005. I had gone from 360 mg per day to Zero in 6 weeks which landed me in the hospital where they tried to make me start taking it again. I knew from my experience in AA since January 6th, 1983 if I didn’t put any more in my body eventually I had to come out of it. They told me this kind of “Self Administered Program” could kill me. They didn’t realize that I had already been dead many times before I ever got there.

    I ended up NOT getting that job I worked so hard to get because of Union Politics and had to go back to Anchorage with nothing. The Bank had taken my house on January 6th, 2005 (My AA Birthday From 1983) and I had to contemplate filing for bankruptcy and starting over from scratch. At that point I had nothing, living in a friend’s basement although I still had the new pickup left over which I couldn’t afford to drive and couldn’t make the payments on. It took the finance company until August 7th, 2005 to come and get that (Which happens to be my regular birthday.)

    I filed all the necessary paperwork for bankruptcy and went to the Union Hall regularly but there was no work. One day while walking our dogs my AA Sponsor and I saw a Taxi drive by. He asked me what I thought about driving a Cab. Now you must realize he’s talking to a person that has never had anything but a good Union job since 1977. The thought of starting over from ZERO terrified me BUT I had to come to grips with the fact EVERY man needs to find that place where he draws a line in the sand and says: NO MORE, after that he will do whatever it takes to get going again.

    I went through the Chauffeurs License testing and got my license and began driving a cab. 3 months, 7 days a week, 12 hours a day driving that cab. Some days making money, many coming home with less than you started with even after being out there for 12 hours. Eventually my break came when one of the old companies that I had worked for before the surgery stumbled on me at the Union Hall. They asked me where I’d been. . .

    After they heard the story all they needed was a full medical release from the doctor that replaced both my knees and I was hired immediately. Slowly I am getting back on my feet. Oh I’m still living in my buddies basement paying rent and driving an old 87 Subaru my AA sponsor gave me but I’m making it: One-Day-At-A-Time.

    Has it been easy, of course not!! Has my whole experience changed my opinion of Doctors in general AND our legal system. YOU BET IT HAS!!!!!!!!!

    Doctors are people too, there are some that are genuinely concerned with their patients well being and will go to any length to help them. Then there are those who belong in jail stripped of all their fancy credentials, money, power, influence and anything else they may have acquired at the expense of their patients. There is one such doctor mention at the beginning of this story that belongs in this category. In jail with him should be the attorneys that are unwilling to pursue action against him because of his influence and power. Both professions are becoming riddled with such types I feel out whole nations health care system is completely without the check and balances that should be in place.

    In conclusion to my little story as I sit here in my 10 X 10 room with my 87 Subaru outside and my dog vacationing over at my AA Sponsors house because there is no room for her here these are my last thoughts:

    It was those doctors who during the times of extreme pain throughout my ordeal that offered me a way to live with a little dignity through prescription drugs while the cutters/surgeons sat on the sidelines not only unwilling to help but even unwilling to even speak up when they KNEW THE FACTS OF THE CASE for fear of retribution. It is NOT the Doctor who prescribes the medications that allow us to live a somewhat normal life we should be going after. It is the doctors who perform surgeries that are reckless, needless or wrongly performed that need to be weeded out and stopped. Along with those are the lawyers that will not take legitimate cases against doctors because of their power and political connections that should be investigated for there seems to be a link between the two. An unholy alliance to line each other’s pockets at the expense of us all and believe me when I say “EXPENSE” I’m talking everything I made from 1983 when I got sober until May 7th, 2003 when Doctor David A. McGuire did the surgery on my knees that ALL went away.

    This is but one man’s story and I’m sure there are thousands more. . .

    Respectfully Submitted,

    John C. Weum

  4. Comment by:
    doctordeluca

    J.C. Weum wrote: “It was those doctors who during the times of extreme pain throughout my ordeal that offered me a way to live with a little dignity through prescription drugs while the cutters/surgeons sat on the sidelines not only unwilling to help but even unwilling to even speak up when they KNEW THE FACTS OF THE CASE for fear of retribution.”

    Thanks.

    Sorry you’ve had to go through all this. Yeah, there are another thousand stories – I get several a week by email. Yours has value and dignity because it is like all the others, not because it, or you, are unique.

    I can personally speak with authority, at various periods in my life, to both the AA experience and the chronic pain experience.

    So I love stories. A true story, actual experience, is powerful.

    ..alex…

  5. Comment by:
    doctordeluca

    Bill wrote: “I was extremely disappointed to see Physician-Senator, Dr. Tom Coburn, (R-OK) call for MORE physician prosecutions and incarcerations for prescribing OxyContin during his questioning of Mr. Brownlee… It is quite apparent to me now that Congress is FAR, FAR from any sort of good understanding about what the US DOJ is really doing.”

    It is discouraging. But it’s all just a dog and pony show – feel free to ignore it. The drug warrior senator giving the drug warrior prosecutor the tough guy rountine . It’s pathetic. Brownlee, after all, is the wonderful cop dude who brought us “Knox/Boone… Racketeers? [http://www.doctordeluca.com/Library/WOD/WPS5-Knox/WPS5-KnoxIndex.htm]“

    ..alex…

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