“The moral test of a government is how it treats those who are at the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the aged; and those who are in the shadow of life, the sick and the needy, and the handicapped.” – Hubert Humphrey
passionate pachyderms
Pharmacist Steve steve@steveariens.com 502.938.2414
MILWAUKEE – A man who was charged Sunday with killing a Milwaukee officer during a drug raid on his home told investigators that he didn’t realize it was police trying to break down his door, authorities said.
Jordan P. Fricke, 26, is charged with first-degree intentional homicide and other crimes in the fatal shooting of 35-year-old Officer Matthew Rittner, who was part of a tactical unit trying to serve a warrant to search the home for illegal drugs and weapons on Wednesday morning.
According to the criminal complaint, police announced their presence several times and said they had a search warrant, and an officer yelled “police” right before Fricke fired four rounds through a hole in the door that Rittner had made with a battering ram. Rittner died of a gunshot wound to the chest.
Fricke was in bed with his girlfriend when they were awakened by loud noise and yelling. He told investigators that he never heard anyone yell “search warrant.” He said he thought he heard someone say “police” but didn’t think it was actually the police trying to break into his home, the complaint states.
Fricke’s girlfriend said she saw him shoot at the kitchen door and that she knew police were at the door because she heard them identify themselves, according to the complaint.
A $1 million cash bond was set Sunday for Fricke, who remained in jail. A court commissioner found probable cause to hold Fricke for further proceedings, and a preliminary hearing was set for Thursday.
Fricke’s attorney, Michael L. Chernin, declined comment.
Rittner, a 17-year veteran of the force, was the third Milwaukee officer killed in the line of duty in eight months. The department had previously gone more than two decades without such a death.
Rittner’s funeral is scheduled for Wednesday at Oak Creek Assembly of God Church in Oak Creek, Wisconsin.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – An independent pharmacy in Anchorage is suing an international pharmaceutical company for threatening to discontinue its supply of prescription medications and other controlled substances. The drug company says it was concerned with the pharmacy’s increased opioid purchases.
Earlier this year, AmerisourceBergen Drug Company (ABDC) said it would be terminating its supply agreement with Bernie’s Pharmacy because of “an elevated percentage of opioid purchasing.”
“Specifically, it was noted that in recent months between 25% – 50% of all pharmacy purchases of Rx products in dosing units were represented by opioids,” wrote ABDC vice president David May in a letter to Bernie’s dated May 23.
“That percentage significantly exceeds the ratio we typically see in similarly situated pharmacies.”
The pharmacy filed a lawsuit against AmerisourceBergen earlier this month, alleging the “unlawful refusal to provide pharmaceutical products to Bernie’s…. despite a Prime Vendor Agreement that requires [ABDC] to provide the ordered pharmaceuticals through at least November 30, 2018.”
In a complaint filed in court on Aug. 8, Bernie’s Pharmacy argued the drug company’s concerns were “ill-defined” and that no state or federal agency has ever taken, or threatened to take, regulatory action against the pharmacy for its purchasing practices.
Anthony Calamunci, the Ohio-based attorney representing Bernie’s Pharmacy in this case, said the drug company’s decision was ill-informed and a breach of the contract.
“At a 30 thousand foot view, they were basing their decision off of purchase orders or purchase records and not really, we believe, truly accurately reflecting the dispensing information from the pharmacy,” Calamunci told Channel 2 by phone Tuesday afternoon.
Despite the drug company’s concerns, AmerisourceBergen will be required to supply Bernie’s with prescription medication for the time being, after U.S. District Court Judge Timothy Burgess granted the pharmacy’s preliminary injunction on Friday. ABDC will continue supplying Bernie’s until Nov. 30, or until they can secure a new supplier.
AmerisourceBergen released the following statement in response to the judge’s decision:
“The conclusion by the US District Court of Alaska that AmerisourceBergen must ship opioid based products to a pharmacy our systems have flagged is illustrative of the fact that distributors should not be asked to function as law enforcers or regulators. Distributors like AmerisourceBergen walk a legal and ethical tightrope between providing access to necessary medications and preventing diversion of controlled substances. Greater regulatory guidance on how to execute our responsibilities is both welcome and necessary.”
Calamunci meanwhile praised the judge’s decision, calling it imperative to the pharmacy’s existence and the health of the customers it serves.
“Unilaterally, AmerisourceBergen attempted to terminate the supply of opioids and controlled substances in violation of the agreement and we’re just happy that judge Burgess ruled and made the findings that he did based on the evidence before him,” Calamunci said.
A manager at Bernie’s Pharmacy on Tuesday declined to speak on camera, citing the ongoing litigation.
The above hyperlink was to a recently published letter from the Alaska board of pharmacy warning pharmacist about the “irrational denial of filling controlled meds Rxs”… Today I got the letter that the Alaska pharmacy BERNIE’S had sent it out to their pts.
There are three major pharmacy wholesalers (Amerisouce, Cardinal, Mc Kesson) that control some 80%-90% of the entire pharmacy market – at the wholesale level.
This is not the first time that I have seen this done…there was a “rash” of them some 5-6 yrs ago, and surprisingly when one of the majors cuts a pharmacy off … the other two … don’t want to have a thing to do with that particular pharmacy.
As far as I know, all wholesalers are licensed by the board of pharmacy in each state… if the Alaska BOP is going to warn pharmacies .. why are they not warning the wholesalers of the abrupt cutting off supplying a pharmacy that has been in business for several decades ?
I suspect that this pharmacy could not “stock up” on control meds because of the rationing that the wholesalers are doing with community pharmacies.
i was a FL BOP meeting in the summer of 2015 to witness a rather “heated” exchange of words between a Pharmacist/Attorney VP of Cardinal and a DEA agent … the VP was stating that the DEA was forcing the wholesalers to ration controls to pharmacies and the DEA was denying any such thing.
All the major wholesalers are doing it and they all started doing it about the same time. Some would think that such actions by 3 majors that control the majority of the pharmacy wholesale distribution could have been viewed as COLLUSION and restraint of trade which are both ILLEGAL ACTIONS… but.. I guess when part of the DOJ is causing this to happen… who is going to enforce the violation of the laws ?
Maybe this has nothing to do with this action by in the new video they mention that the wholesaler that has cut this independent pharmacy off is Amerisource – which Walgreens owns a substantial share of and according to this Walgreens has 4 stores in Anchoragehttps://usalocator.org/walgreens-locations/alaska
“I’m writing because of something that occurred in the medical clinic I work at today. Our medical staff intercepted a serious and potentially fatal 3-letter pharmacy chain error.
A young child was brought into our office by his non-English speaking parent for a follow up visit for allergy testing. He had been previously prescribed an epi-pen for anaphylactic reactions and brought said pen to the appointment. Upon inspecting the pen, the nurse working with the patient determined it to be a Glucagon device in a red container rather than an epi-pen. The original pharmacy label was still attached to the device box and it was labeled as an epi.
I worked in pharmacy several years and only recently moved to the medical office setting. After experiencing retail Hell and continually hearing the recent troubles with overworked and overwhelmed staff at certain chains, I am not at all surprised at this event. I am just very happy the error was caught before the pen was needed and that little kid was spared a potentially awful fate.”
METAIRIE, LA (WVUE) – A law signed by President Donald Trump as a result of the ‘Medical Waste’ Investigation is the start of ‘revolutionary’ changes to drug prices in the United States, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar told Louisiana pharmacists Wednesday.
Azar was in New Orleans to speak to the Association for Accessible Medicines and to meet with Louisiana pharmacists about the progress that has been made following the extensive ‘Medical Waste’ Investigation by FOX 8 News.
Click here to watch our ‘Medical Waste’ Investigative Series
Much of the years-long investigation focused on pharmacy benefit managers – or PBM’s – middlemen often in control of how much you pay for prescription medications.
“The biggest PBM is bigger than Walt Disney, McDonalds and Eli Lilly combined,” Doug Hoey, with the National Community Pharmacists Association, said during our investigation. “Those three iconic companies together are not as big as the biggest PBM, Express Scripts – yet most consumers have no idea what Express Scripts is.”
The PBM’s set up a system where they get rebates – or kickbacks – from drug companies. That money they collect, helps pad the PBM’s books. HHS Secretary Alex Azar speaks to Louisiana pharmacists during a visit to a Metairie pharmacy on Feb. 6. HHS Secretary Alex Azar speaks to Louisiana pharmacists during a visit to a Metairie pharmacy on Feb. 6.
“Right now drug companies are giving kickbacks or rebates to middlemen who decide which drugs you get to take. But when you show up here at a pharmacy, you don’t get a benefit of that kickback or that rebate as a discount, it stays there with the middleman,” Azar said Wednesday in an exclusive interview with Chief Investigative Reporter Lee Zurik. “As of January 1, you would get that discount when you show up at the pharmacy.”
Azar told the pharmacists the savings for their customers could be significant. He said the average could be twenty to thirty percent in savings, but in some cases the discount could be much larger.
The directive from the President only applies to the Medicare Part D Program. But Secretary Azar thinks the savings will trickle down to other private plans too.
“We don’t directly regulate the private plans but we think the changes we’re making in Medicare will cause the private plans to change their practices also,” Azar said. “We’d ask Congress to take a look at this — Congress could make that happen across the plans immediately.”
Among the pharmacists at Wednesday’s meeting of pharmacists was Hammond pharmacist Ricky Mannino. He’s the pharmacist who initially tipped us and started the Medical Waste investigative series, resulting in a law signed by the President. The pharmacists believe the HHS Secretary received their message about help for prescription drugs.
“Transparency is key. We have been saying that all along,” Randal Johnson, president and CEO of the Louisiana Independent Pharmacies Association, said. “Let’s not be able to call a dog a cat. Let’s not use a term that you can change the definition on with a whim. We need transparency to take out these price concessions and we need to get down to where a patient is able to afford to maintain their health by going to their pharmacy and getting the lowest cost drug.
At Tuesday night’s the State of the Union Address, President Trump also had a message for drug companies.
“It is unacceptable that Americans pay vastly more than people in other countries for the exact same drugs,” he said.
The FOX 8 Medical Waste investigative series found drugs priced far more in the U.S. compared to other countries. Our investigation found a diabetes drug that cost $106 in the United States and $2 in Canada. We also found an antibiotic for $143 in the U.S. and $33 in Canada.
“Will there be a time where you can buy a drug in America and Canada or somewhere else and they will be relatively the same price?” Zurik asked Secretary Azar.
“Well, that’s our goal is to end this foreign free-riding,” Azar said. “The President [Tuesday night] gave a call to action to Congress — end foreign free-riding off of American research and development. The American patient should not have to pay the cost of development for the rest of the world. Alex Azar, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary
Last year, Congress passed a bill which President Trump signed that prevented Pharmacist gag clauses. The bill was sponsored by Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy after he watched the Medical Waste stories with Hammond pharmacist, Ricky Mannino.
The Trump Administration said the steps highlighted to the pharmacists Thursday in New Orleans are the next steps to lower the cost of healthcare for consumers, whose lives may be in danger because of drug companies pricing them out of the market.
Combining some common antidepressants and opioids can undercut the relief of the painkillers.
Antidepressants may dampen the effects of some common opioids, resulting in less effective pain management according to research findings published Wednesday. The researchers suggest physicians should consider alternative pain management strategies for patients on antidepressants.
Opioids come in two broad varieties: those that act directly and others that have to be chemically processed by the body before they can begin to relieve pain. Direct-acting opioids, like morphine or oxycodone, can get right to work.
The other kind are called “prodrugs” and include hydrocodone, the opioid ingredient in Vicodin. Prodrugs need to be metabolized in the liver before they’re able to bind with pain receptors in the brain.
If the enzyme can’t do its job, then the opioid can’t either — or at least not as well.
Prodrug opioids and SSRIs are two of the most commonly prescribed medications in the US, meaning this interaction could potentially affect millions, according to Hernandez-Boussard.
“There was theoretical evidence that suggested SSRIs might block prodrug opioids, but we didn’t know if it actually affected patient outcomes,” says Hernandez-Boussard.
To find out, Hernandez-Boussard and her team mined the electronic medical records of 4,300 surgical patients who had previously been diagnosed with depression. About half of those patients were taking an SSRI antidepressant. The researchers used a machine learning approach to tease apart the effects of SSRI use, opioid type, and pre- and postoperative pain, as measured on a 0-10 scale.
The researchers found that patients on an SSRI who were prescribed a prodrug opioid, such as Vicodin, had significantly more pain after surgery than all other groups when they left the hospital. This effect persisted up to two months after surgery. “On average, SSRI and prodrug opioid patients had 1 point worse pain on the 0 to 10 scale,” says Hernandez Boussard.
One specific result of their analysis underlined the dampening effect of SSRIs for Hernandez-Boussard. As a rule, patients with higher pre-operative pain tend to have higher post-operative pain.
The researchers found that patients on SSRI medication with higher pre-operative pain tended to get prescribed non-prodrug opioids, which are often considered stronger. Despite having more pain before surgery, these SSRI/non-prodrug patients fared better than the lower preoperative pain SSRI/prodrug patients.
“This is an important study,” says Jenny Wilkerson, a professor of pharmacodynamics at the University of Florida who wasn’t involved in the study. She says that genetic variations in the CYP-2D6 enzyme can interfere with opioid metabolism in other ways, and that this study advances our understanding of how SSRIs alter the effectiveness of opioids. She adds that she’d like to more studies in different populations to better understand the impact of this interaction on patients.
Hernandez-Boussard says these results could lead to better pain management and reduce opioid prescriptions. “If the opioids aren’t being activated and you’re not getting appropriate pain management, you’re going to take more opioids and you’re going to take them for a longer period of time,” she says. Apart from patients simply being in more pain than they need to be, this interaction “could lead to misuse or abuse down the road.”
“This combination of SSRIs and prodrug opioids is likely pretty common,” says Hernandez-Boussard. Consequently, she says the potential interaction should be recognized and discussed at the point of care.
“Every opioid has a side effect, not one opioid that is better than another,” says Hernandez-Boussard. “Possibly for patients taking SSRI, morphine or oxycodone, direct-acting drugs which don’t need to be broken down by the liver might be a better choice.”
Wilkerson echoes the importance of a discussion between physicians and patients about SSRI use and pain management options, a conversation that can be complicated by mental illness. “Patients shouldn’t feel stigmatized for being depressed or in pain,” she says, “patients have to advocate for their best personal care.”
Patients who are depressed and taking SSRIs are already a vulnerable population, known to experience more pain, and to have more trouble managing it. Hernandez-Boussard hopes that this study will help doctors tailor pain treatment towards the millions of Americans taking antidepressants.
“We need to think about how we can tailor treatment towards more vulnerable groups,” she says. “More work needs to be done, but this is a good first step.”
A new mother says a mix-up at a pharmacy led her to give her newborn daughter the wrong medication.
Brittni Mergl is blaming a prescription mix-up at a Bellport CVS for making her baby sick for two weeks.
She says she was supposed to be giving her 4-month-old daughter Erin medicine for acid reflux, but instead she had been giving her a steroid for two weeks.
During that time Mergl says Erin was vomiting, swollen, wouldn’t sleep and was always crying.
“I put a lot of blame on myself,” Mergl said. “But again, I’m not a medical professional. I don’t know what I’m reading. I’m trusting that the pharmacy is giving me the right medicine. I’m sure everybody is trusting their pharmacy to get the right medicine.”
Mergl says the pharmacist was apologetic, but couldn’t give her a full answer to how the mix-up occurred.
A spokesperson for CVS Health apologized to the Mergl family, telling News 12, “The health and well-being of our patients is our number one priority and we have comprehensive policies and procedures in place to ensure prescription safety. Prescription errors are a very rare occurrence, but if one does happen, we do everything we can to learn from it in order to continuously improve quality and patient safety.”
CVS also issued Mergl a full refund for the wrong prescription and gave her the right prescription for free.
She hopes she can help raise awareness for people to check their medication. She says Erin is back to being her happy and healthy self.
After Mergl posted about the incident on Facebook, she says she learned that similar situations have happened to other people and with other pharmacies.
She is currently speaking with a lawyer about taking legal action against CVS.
A Northern Kentucky pain doctor, who also was the owner of Kentucky Derby horses “Fast and Accurate” and “Hansen,” has been named as a defendant in a personal injury lawsuit.
But Dr. Kendall Hansen defended his practice in an interview with The Enquirer Thursday. He spent decades building his reputation, he said.
The lawsuit, filed in Kenton County Circuit Court, accuses Hansen and Interventional Pain Specialists of Crestview Hills of providing unnecessary and excessive injection therapy to an Independence woman with chronic pain.
One day later, federal officials served a search warrant at his office.
“We welcome the scrutiny,” Hansen said.
Eric Deters, spokesman of Deters Law ( http://deterslawfirm.com ) in Independence, said the woman who filed suit, Candi McKinney of Independence, is one of many who were treated unnecessarily with epidurals.
“(Hansen) would not give individuals their pain medication … unless they capitulated in having an epidural,” Deters said Thursday.
“We’re suspicious of people who only want medication and don’t want to get better. Whatever was said between me and the patient” was twisted, Hansen claimed.
Deters said that he was asked to put any clients in contact with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and that he did so. However, he added that he did not know of any particular outcome.
Tim Reagan, resident agent-in-charge of the Cincinnati office of the DEA, said DEA officers were with federal agents at Interventional Pain Specialists for the search but his agency was not leading the search.
Hansen said he believed the search was a result of heightened scrutiny after one of his former nurses was caught stealing medication. Hansen said he reported the nurse to the DEA and local law enforcement.
“I think there’s a big spotlight put on us because of the incident last year,” Hansen said.
He added that medical records were examined by investigators.
“If I was them I would do that,” he said of the investigators conducting the search. “It’s our government dollars at work. We’re an amazing office. We do our due diligence prescribing.”
Hansen said he doesn’t expect future searches.
“My lawyer contacted the director that’s overseeing this in Washington,” Hansen said, “and it will be several months before they come back to us if they have any issues, but we’re confident there won’t be any serious issues.”
McKinney’s lawsuit was filed by Dominick Romeo of Deters Law. Judge Kathy Lape was assigned the case, and a summons was issued for Hansen to answer the suit. Once he receives it, he’ll have 20 days to respond, court documents state.
McKinney claims in the suit that her pain therapy started on Feb. 12, 2014, when she was prescribed oxycodone and a nerve-root block injection at the office. She got the injection Feb. 26 of that year, her lawsuit says.
She was written another prescription for oxycodone on March 26, the same year, the suit says, and then on April 15, she was told to have epidural injection therapy and her pain medication was increased, the suit claims.
“At least once a month, Plaintiff would undergo injection therapy and would be written a prescription for narcotic pain medication,” the suit states. She said she was afraid that if she didn’t undergo the “recommended injection therapy, her pain medication would be withheld from her.”
The suit also claims that McKinney asked about receiving Narcan, the antidote for opioid overdoses, because she already had prescriptions for a fentanyl patch and Percocet. Both of these are synthetic opiates that are commonly prescribed for pain.
The treatment continued until September 2018, the suit says, and that’s when she first saw Hansen and was given a new prescription for pain medication.
She saw Hansen Oct. 2, and medication was refilled, the suit claims. On Nov. 27, she says, Hansen recommended she undergo injection therapy again.
But she didn’t want an injection, the suit claims, and so Hansen “would not fill” her medication after Dec. 1, 2018.
She says in her suit that the injections caused “great pain and suffering due to the fact that they required pre-testing with probes on both sides of her spine” before she would get them.
Hansen said Interventional Pain Specialists treats about 4,000 patients and employs about 60 people.
The office performs about 50 different procedures, and roughly 10 percent of all procedures are of the “epidural variety,” he said.
The office’s philosophy is to perform procedures “to solve pain problems so (patients) are not so dependent on pain medication,” Hansen said.
He added he’s never been accused in this manner.
Other federal law enforcement agents did not return calls for comment.
I can’t remember the times that I have stated that “forcing” a pt to get ESI in order to get a Rx for oral opiates is a violation of a section of the Sherman Antitrust Act ( Tying Commerce) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tying_(commerce) which basically states that forcing a customer to purchase something that they don’t want in order to be able to purchase something that they do want.
The medication typically used in ESI’s is Depo-Medrol (Methylprednisolone) is NOT RECOMMENDED for use in ESI’s by both the FDA and Pfizer. So one can come to the conclusion that giving ESI’s with this medication is NOT MEDICALLY NECESSARY/APPROPRIATE.. Thus – in theory – any physician giving a pt ESI’s using this medication could be guilty of INSURANCE FRAUD..
***This video is the formal plea from 9 people (Susie Meneely, Reva Parker, Heidi Hines-Shattuck, Bree Wilson, Dawn Anderson, Cherie Sandretzky, Jessie Ray & *Suzanne Stewart (*the producer & editor of this video) who are also living with chronic pain. This is a very short piece of their stories and a very big plea to the News media, the Government of the USA and anyone else who may be able to help us. In 2016, the CDC wrote a set of guidelines (in secret without any real pain physicians present) for the prescribing of opioid pain medications. These meds have helped to relieve some chronic pain for humans for centuries. They have somehow turned into “Laws” in all of the 50 states. People who live with multiple chronic pain illnesses are now dying and/or committing suicide due to untreated or under-treated chronic pain. Please share this video with people who might be able to help us. I received the full videos from each of these women. I exited all of our stories and pleas. Please know that I invited all men and women living with the results of these CDC Guidelines. These are the persons who responded to my own pleas to make a video and send it to as many as possible who may be able to listen and help all chronic pain patients. Thank you for Watching!
This death was most likely preventable :'( this makes me so angry inside. On my very first pain mgmt. visit I first had to meet with a pain psychologist who had carefully and meticulously reviewed my medical file. One of his opening questions to me was, “Has any health care professional ever stated or made you feel like all this pain was in your head?” I said, “Well, yes I have been made to feel that way before.” And he said, “Well, that stops here. I’ve read your file over the last few days and what caught my attention was an ER report from April. You do know you were treated poorly for the first 10 minutes or so correct?” And I said, “To be honest, I was in so much pain I can hardly recall, I was not in a good frame of mind.” He said, “I see here, your blood pressure upon arrival was 220/165, after 5 more minutes it was even higher, is that correct?” I said, “Yes. I remember being taken to a room on a wheelie bed, the lights above me blending together, blurry. Voices sounded far away and my ears were ringing.” He said, “They did a blood lab prior to treating you, are you aware of this?” I said, “No.” (An IV was started right as I entered a room, no idea about a blood draw). He proceeded to inform me that even though I had an extensive history of failed back surgeries, they checked for illegal drugs before treating you. Umm, I found his information interesting but didn’t let it bother me until later. You see… I had had 3 major back surgeries and suffered horrendous pain that would cause what is now on my chart as “Hypertensive Crisis Pain Disorder” which I now know can escalate blood pressure so high that it can cause organ failure, heart attack, stroke, etc… my rapid blood screen came back with Tylenol #3 and Flexeril in it, which is what I was prescribed at the time. The ER Dr. was smart though and ordered IV 1.5 mg/ 2 hrs Dilaudid and oral 10 mg Valium (1 dose). That doctor treated me fairly once the initial assessment was taken of my blood. I realize they need to know what you’re on, but I was communicating, albeit not well, but in writing just fine. After the IV saline, Dilaudid and valium I was feeling better within 25 minutes and significantly better after an hour. They kept me 4 hours and the doctor wrote on my chart, “Highly recommend patients file be expedited to the waiting list at the pain clinic, she’s been waiting 6 months on the waiting list, she needs medication therapy for pain, life-threatening, she’s only 29 years old.” The psychologist assured me that pain CAN and HAS killed many people including: soldiers at war, shock and trauma patients and chronic pain patients. He said, “Your suffering stops here. You will not be treated like an addict, you have been suffering and this could damage your heart, kidneys, liver, brain, bodily function.” I’m so thankful that I picked a hospital that is the only accredited one in our state for treating pain. I continue to pray that I never lose treatment, as I could easily become a statistic – dead from lack of proper medical care.
This pseudo opioid crisis needs to STOP! The real crisis is the illegally manufactured designer street drugs and that is where nearly all of the DEA’s focus SHOULD be. They continue to perpetuate the stigma that opioids kill people… and forget blindly to say, “illegal illicit opioids are killing people, not prescriptions from legal doctors!” Ugh :/ I get so upset. No real chronic pain stories are told. We are soft easy targets who have a hard enough time getting dressed, let alone fighting against lawmakers, liars, the CDC’s bogus mme guidelines, etc.. no c.p.p. wants to be in pain, no one wants to take medicines, but just as a diabetic needs insulin some of us have pain disorders which require adequate care under the guidance of very knowledgeable teams of doctors.
This death ought to be investigated and scrutinized with a fine tooth comb. She probably died from heart failure due to going beyond the human threshold of pain based on the dels units scale ~65 del=death from shock, organ failure, etc… Lastly, the medications legally prescribed by doctors are MADE for a reason, they are not made for just ‘anybody’ they serve a very valuable purpose. Those patients who require medication mgmt. from pain that can kill you is why they were made. It shouldn’t take a rocket scientist to understand this. All pain patients I’ve been honored to talk with all have to “prove” they have pain nowadays. It is awful that this woman died, could’ve been me back in 2010, if that ER doctor had refused. :'( Why do we have to fight for adequate care? There needs to be a pain patients bill of rights and a compassionate care bill enacted. It’s the illegal druggies, dealers, and manufacturers that NEED to be arrested and given lengthy prison terms. Pain patients want to live, we want to be taken seriously. We only want legal options, not illegal. We don’t want to be high. We just need our medication health plan, which should be private but hell it’s not. HIPAA for a pain patient? Nope, not with all the databases. It’s ridiculous! This is a crisis: the refusal of proper care. :'( There needs to be a compassionate care law in place for c.p.p.
Thank you to anyone who read this long post, thank you to anyone helping to preserve a small quality of life for us who suffer. Thank you to anyone willing to reach out, speak up, fight, etc… it can be seen as a catch 22, damned if you don’t speak up about the abuse of not receiving proper care and damned if you do people who have never had any chronic pain in their damn life think you’re a drug addict :/ This.Has.To.Change. The media has influenced the general public with a false narrative. Even the CDC has admitted to wrongdoing, their calculations were WAY OFF! The number of deaths from opioids in 2017 was ~78,000 initially, but after careful review the number dropped by over 70% because they had combined illegal drug overdoses, illegal use of drugs, including mixing of other drugs like alcohol in with medications, etc… the likelihood of a c.p.p. dying of an overdose is less than 1%. The data is out there, it needs to be relayed appropriately.
Now I’m going to shed tears for the woman who died, even though I didn’t know her, I understand her struggle and that could’ve been me.
Anyone can become a c.p.p. at any time, due to an accident, severe injury, illness, etc… how would they like to be treated after they’d exhausted all options, including invasive procedures and surgeries? Can’t people at least think with more empathy, “What if that was me? What if that was my daughter, my son, my father, my mother, my child, my baby?” Think.People.Think! One day it could be you.
