Pain doctor’s
case goes to federal jury.
Send him your prayers and note of support: [email protected]
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Your
thoughts and prayers are needed for one of your colleagues
today.
The
case of the
Dr.
Hurwitz, a
The government claims that Dr. Hurwitz knowingly prescribed medications for patients who then sold them. The defense has shown that the patients in question were experienced con artists who also managed to con the DEA as well. At least two of the prosecutor’s “star witnesses” were getting prescriptions from other doctors even while being “handled” by the DEA to go undercover to gather evidence against Dr. Hurwitz.
As
defense attorney Hallanan said, "these people were predators...and had played
doctors for years" to get drugs. And that it was because of Dr. Hurwitz's
belief in his responsibility to treat patients in pain without making judgment
about whether they were good enough people to “deserve” treatment. “His belief in his ethical duty is the
key to the door of his office for these thieves and predators.”
An
AAPS representative heard Dr. Hurwitz's testimony and closing arguments, and
reports that it should be obvious to the jury that he had no direct knowledge of
the patients' diversion. But with more than 60 separate counts pending
against him, a complete vindication is a tough sell -- which is exactly what the
prosecutor wanted.
A
verdict may be in before today is over.
You
may send a note of support to Dr. Hurwitz at [email protected]
Pasted below is an
article appearing in the Richmond (VA) newspaper, which has provided extremely
balanced coverage of this trial, the previous trial of Dr. Hurwitz’s colleague,
Cecil Knox, M.D.
Association
of American Physicians & Surgeons
(800)
635-1196
(520)
325-4230 Fax
www.aapsonline.org
http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD%2FMGArticle%2FRT
N.Va. jury set to get painkiller case
BY PAUL
BRADLEY
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
12/10/2004 - Richmond,
VA
ALEXANDRIA - A federal jury was asked yesterday to decide between
two widely
disparate descriptions of a prominent Northern Virginia doctor
accused of
fueling a black market in potent prescription drugs.
Did
Dr. William E. Hurwitz, as prosecutors alleged in closing arguments,
look the
other way when he learned some of his patients were selling and
abusing the
medications he prescribed for them?
Or, as defense lawyers contended, is
Hurwitz a caring, courageous physician
who was duped by a small number of
patients enrolled in a practice that
helped hundreds of other people deal
with their chronic pain?
After a six-week trial and hearing from more
than 75 witnesses, the jury is
to begin deliberations this morning on a
62-count indictment against
Hurwitz. If convicted of the most serious
charges, the
be
sentenced to life in prison.
The charges against Hurwitz stem
from a two-year federal investigation into
doctors, pharmacists and patients
who allegedly marketed in potent
prescription drugs, primarily OxyContin, a
widely abused and highly
addictive painkiller.
Assistant U.S. Attorney
Gene Rossi said Hurwitz was a reckless doctor whose
therapies hooked some of
his patients on drugs and resulted in the deaths of
at least two of
them.
"The defendant was a key factor in making [patients] addicts,
sellers and
diverters," he said. "He gave them the keys to their own
destruction."
Rossi added: "The defendant's pain practice was out of
control. For many
patients, the defendant ran a pill mill."
Rossi said
Hurwitz repeatedly ignored "red flags and loud gongs" - signs
that his
patients were abusing illicit drugs, such as the appearance of
needle tracks
on their arms. Rossi said Hurwitz was indifferent upon
learning that some
patients had been arrested on drug charges.
Hurwitz, who earned a
reputation as an unconventional pioneer in the use of
potent drugs to combat
chronic pain, has run afoul of authorities before. He
has been disciplined by
medical boards in
Columbia
Hurwitz has acknowledged that he prescribed massive
amounts of painkillers
to some patients, but insisted he always did so for
sound medical reasons.
Defense lawyer Patrick Hallinan said any mistakes
Hurwitz has made should be
handled by those civil boards, rather than in
criminal court.
"What this case is about is the question of who sets the
medical standards
for people in this country," he said. "Is it the
clinicians, or is it law
enforcement?"
Hallinan said Hurwitz fell
victim to his own conviction that all patients
with chronic pain are entitled
to treatment, even those who have had brushes
with the law or have drug
problems.
A small number of patients abused the doctor's trust by selling
or abusing
legitimate prescriptions, Hallinan said. They later were enlisted
as
informants by the Drug Enforcement Administration as it
investigated
Hurwitz, he added.
Hurwitz "gave these people a
credibility they didn't deserve," Hallinan
said. "His belief in his ethical
duty was the key to the door to these
predators, these thieves. Dr. Hurwitz,
unfortunately, was the perfect mark
for these people."
"He never wrote
a prescription that he didn't believe was going to be used
by that patient to
relieve his pain," Hallinan said.
Rossi, noting that Hurwitz has medical
and law degrees while most of his
patients never went to college, implored
the jury to reject defense
assertions that Hurwitz was duped.
"This
defendant has a mind like a steel trap," he said.
Hurwitz treated about
300 patients from across the country from the late
1990s to 2002, receiving a
$1,000 initiation fee and monthly fees of up to
$250 for each patient
enrolled in the practice. Much of the evidence
presented at his trial came
from former patients who struck plea deals and
testified against him.