Below is some information shared by Bob Sheerin, Pres of American Pain and Disability Foundation. For the last few years, Bob has been advocating for pediatric chronic pain pts. Many are end of life pediatric cancer pts and others are dealing with some chronic health issues like Sickle Cell and pediatric rheumatoid arthritis. Diseases and/or health issues that can cause intense pain levels and some/many have no cure or in the case of cancer are FATAL. Many/most have been pts being treated – or not so treated – by physicians that are employees of Vanderbilt Healthcare System, which includes hospitals, 10 schools & colleges and according to their website https://www.vanderbilt.edu/academics/ has world-class faculty. It has been reported that Vanderbilt is going around Tenn/KY and buying up rural independent office practices and rural hospitals, then implementing their corporate little/no opioids in treating chronic pain. Resulting that many of these intractable chronic pain kids are being thrown into a torturous level of pain, something that if a parent intentionally inflicted that much pain on their children, the parent would be thrown in jail and their kids put in foster care. Vanderbilt is not the only huge healthcare corporation that is doing this, but should it be asked why these healthcare corporations and their employees are allowed – get a pass – to intentionally inflict pain on these pediatric and/or any chronic pain pts for matter. There is an estimated 100 million chronic pain pts living in our country – that is abt 30% of our population. I recently read where the DEA’s primary charge under the Controlled Substance Act when it was signed into law in 1970 was to deal with diversion of pharma opioids/controlled meds.. I also recently read that the DEA stated that <1% of pharma opioids were being diverted. Does the question has to be asked, if diversion is that low.. why is the DOJ/DEA doing so much to make opioids/controlled meds less available to pts who have a valid medical necessity for being prescribed those controlled meds?
Here is a recent post on my blog about all they various things that our judicial system is doing to restrict the availability and access to opioids/controlled meds. Be sure to read the hyperlinks within the post https://www.pharmaciststeve.com/dea-surrogates-are-trying-to-throttle-the-availability-of-controlled-meds-to-pts/
Have they crossed the line where disabled pts’ civil rights under the American Disability Act (ADA) are being violated? Unfortunately, the agency that is charged with enforcing the ADA is within the DOJ, as is the DEA. Are there conflicts of interest within the DOJ dept?
American Pain and Disability Foundation 
We have to get 126 sets of parents to step up and fight and go to the media with me! Twenty two emails about tapering their children off medications APDF has fought so hard to obtain already for them and that gave them quality of life for so long! Individuality from speaking and obtaining these children’s medications & quality of life is now in the hands of administrators who don’t want the doctors to prescribe these medications and have no medical degrees, yet are incharge of this attack! So for the parents who are scared of drawing attention to their kids it’s only a short time til it is YOUR kid who will be punished for having a debilitating disease or injury causing pain and disparity to your child! I know several parents APDF has helped who follow my social media and groups and I beg of you to contact me and be heard even if your child has not yet been informed of such tapers! We are at the point where going into the hospitals and doctors office is useless on an individual need! These administrators and insurance companies must be stopped by news media and actual stories pertaining to your situation and although I’d love for you to go public I would gladly except written statements to take to DC when Shirley and I go in a couple weeks! If your the mother, father, (GAL), or guardian of a child APDF have helped or even a parent that has went through the medical gas lighting yourself for your child I implore you or actually beg of you to contact me ASAP! I have sent emails and have gotten very few responses and the ones I have gotten back is because the child is being tapered already! We can fight this again but I need all the parents I can get! Whether your a former parent of a former child APDF has helped or a parent who has lost or your child is a current chronic pain patients now please reach out to me before these kids suffer! Thank you. Bob Sheerin American Pain and Disability Foundation Bobsapdfky@gmail.com Www.4apdf.org
Filed under: General Problems
Opioid sparing policies sat the quiet part out loud. It isn’t about the patient at all, but ensuring not “too many” opioids are used to control pain. Logically speaking, if one places all of the emphasis on # of pills or dosages, it places none on the patient and whether the patient is actually even achieving pain relief with the pittance the may or may not be receiving. When it comes to end of life care or care for the seriously ill particularly, there is no excuse good enough to promote opioid sparing policies over the health and comfort of the patients. Even moreso when we are talking about children as the patients in question. What kind of sick people institute blanket policies that will inevitably leave patients in pain in the first place? Did these people forget that addiction, should it occur, is a condition that is treatable with considerable success compared to, say, Sickle Cell or CANCER? As a matter of fact, if we are being totally honest here, Opioid Sparing policies more or less only equate to a legitimized version of the promotion of human suffering. When critically ill patients have no other avenues of achieving acceptable, proper, and adequate pain relief, this idea is a thinly veiled excuse for torture. It’s bitterly ironic that they then claim it’s all in the name of saving them from the highly treatable threat of addiction. Yet to hear them tell it, it’s a fate WORSE than death. Worse than suffering for the rest of your life, which will likely be shortened by the presence of unrelenting, unregulated pain and the assault it wages on human bodily systems. Worse than a young memory marred by the trauma of recalling these bouts of assault, if they are able to eventually achieve some semblance of stability with their conditions. I suspect that it may result in unnecessary PTSD for any who are able to stabilize. I cannot imagine what they must go through mentally if they realize their health is declining again. It must be a nightmare all on it’s own to know that if you have to return to these hospitals, you’ll once again be inundated with out of control pain in the hands of those there to help you, but who are ironically also the same ones withholding vital pain relief from you. It’s not like we are ever going to forget that pain medication does what it was designed to do no matter how thick the layer of propaganda is laid on. And we definitely won’t forget that it was wrongfully withheld due to hysterical fears that someone might become addicted, spitting in the face of the fact that suffering is not a potential as with addiction, but a guaranteed reality for far too many.