Two of the leading pain experts, Dr. Russell K. Portenoy of Beth-Israel Medical Center and Dr. James N. Campbell of Johns Hopkins University, testified without pay as experts for the defense. They said Dr. Hurwitz was widely known as a knowledgeable physician and passionate advocate of giving patients full pain relief, unlike many doctors who were reluctant to prescribe opioids because they feared legal repercussions, particularly when dealing with patients who sometimes used illegal drugs.
Such “problem patients” consumed so much time and energy that most doctors refused to treat them “regardless of what the consequences would be for the patient,” Dr. Campbell testified. He said that he had been initially skeptical of some of Dr. Hurwitz’s high-dose treatments, but was then impressed by the results in patients he sent to Dr. Hurwitz....
“I felt that I had a duty to the patients,” he said. “I hated the idea of inflicting the pain of withdrawal on them.” After the closure of his practice in 2002, he said, two of his patients committed suicide because they gave up hope of finding pain relief.
The most moving testimony came from Mrs. Lohrey and other patients who described their despondency before finding Dr. Hurwitz. They said they were amazed not just at the pain relief he provided but at the way he listened to them, and gave them his cellphone number with instructions to call whenever they wanted.
“I felt like I was his only patient,” Mrs. Lohrey testified. “I think he truly understood the nature of what I was going through.” When she lost her health insurance, she said, Dr. Hurwitz continued treating her at no charge, and helped her enroll in a program that paid for her opioid prescriptions. After Dr. Hurwitz’s practice was shut down, she could not find anyone to treat her for seven months.
From the Drug Policy Alliance:
"While we are saddened that Dr. Hurwitz was not entirely exonerated, we are heartened that the court and the jury rejected the most outrageous and dangerous claims of the federal prosecutors, which, had they gained traction, would have threatened the entire practice of pain medicine across the country," said Daniel Abrahamson, DPA's Director of Legal Affairs. "Hopefully, the Department of Justice will be chastened by this experience and will not willy-nilly target pain doctors who valiantly fight for their patients' well-being."
1 comment:
One blog reader comments, "I guess the tremendous irony of all this is that the physician who tried to do good is in jail, while the guy that lied and scammed for meds named Rush Limbaugh is still raking in the dough."
That about gets it. Few good deeds go unpunished, while many bad actors continue to flourish. Sounds appropriately biblical...
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