Posted on 08/16/2019 9:48:34 AM PDT by grumpygresh
1. The California Attorney General's office reported Dr. Keller was arrested and arraigned in connection with five patient deaths after he prescribed them "dangerously high levels of addictive opioids and narcotics." He allegedly prescribed Vicodin, oxycodone, OxyContin, Percocet and morphine outside acceptable levels for clinical practice.
2. Dr. Keller faces second-degree murder charges related to nine patients and felony elder abuse charges connected with five patient deaths. He is in custody, and his bail review is scheduled for Aug. 20.
3. A complaint filed in the Superior Court for Santa Rosa County alleges Dr. Keller prescribed maximum dosages of 180 to 300 pills per prescription, which exceeds the 50 mg Morphine Equivalent Dosage standard set by the CDC. He received red flag warnings from pharmacies and insurance companies, but continued to prescribe the high level of dosages
(Excerpt) Read more at beckersspine.com ...
He's a neurosurgeon. You have no idea of the surgeries he is performing, nor if every patient gets the same number of drugs. If a patient is going to be house bound for a month are you going to make them make a trip to the pharmacy every week?
Or he could be prescribing to patient's who have a high tolerance to opioids due to previous pain management doses. In that case the patient may require higher dosing. It's not like the CDC pays for home delivery of these drugs nor a nurse to assess the patient each week.
I doubt that medicare and medicaid would pay extra for him to hire a pain management specialist to manage all these prescriptions of what is likely a busy practice.
America....stop blaming the drug companies and the doctors...look in the mirror.....YOU, America, is demanding these drugs from everything from a toothache to a so called sinus infection to sciatica to carpel tunnel.
Before this ‘crisis ‘ hit my doc used to prescribe me 3 months of meds in one scrip to save money. Since insurance will only fill for a month. She’d write a triple scrip for me with no refills. She explained to me what she was doing each time and told me she wouldn’t refill for 3 months. I guess she’d go to jail for it now. She’s probably glad she retired.
an d by the way- a border patrol dude was on tonight and said that enough opioids were coming into the us over the border to kill every human here twice over- that is where the crisis is, NOT with prescription drugs-
Again- just for others reading the thread- people who are prescribed them, and take them as labelled, do not get aDDicted- only 2% do- 98% do not-
There is no crisis in the legally prescribed arena- there may be a few unscrupulous docs, but the vast majority of them are not=- infact, the amount of bad docs is probably lower than the rate of addiction for those taking them legally and as prescribed-
The government is going after the wrong thing- they have a border crisis going on and tons of drugs coming across, and what do they do? Go after innocent people who need pain relief to make their life a bit more bearable!
The potential hallucinogenic side effects of ketamine are scary to me as physician. It’s also being used in compounded topicals for various kinds of abnormal skin sensations, with anecdotally good results. But even though that route should reduce system side effects I’d be nervous about it. But at least ketamine has been around a long time with, I understand, a lot of use in veterinary medicine and some in humans. Other than the hallucinogenic issues it seems to be reasonably effective and safe.
In contrast, cannibis and derivatives thereof, which are being promoted for all kinds of conditions in spite of psychiatric side effect concerns, and minimal scientific evidence regarding efficacy or safety otherwise. Any other ‘new’ drug with its alleged benefits, once it became legally usable (and thus testable) would initially be used in controlled clinical trials to determine both safety and efficacy. If it were a very promising drug, as cannibis may well be, then there would be a lot of capital al invested in multiple fast tracked trials and answers would come ASAP. But it wouldn’t be released for general use, especially the essentially OTC unrestricted use being pushed, until enough good data came from those trials. The drug companies might richer from it, but their profits would be deferred at least a few years. And if the trials didn’t realize the hype or if they showed serious side effects they might lose a lot on it.
Had to take percosets for a while when my hip started falling apart - pains had my blood pressure up from normal 118/65 to 180/84....some twinges would make me squeal like 10 year old girls who found a pony under the Christmas tree.
Max dosage was 8-12 in a 24 hour period and a month supply at that was 240-300 pills.
I only took them in doses and at timing to take care of the pain so I didn’t use a month supply in a month but it was nice to have enough to actually handle the pain that did crop up.
Never got hooked because I didn’t abuse them and believe it’s on the patients if they opt to not follow doctors orders/instructions.
Was on them for 3 months before another treatment (steroids to the spine) and time made the pain ease up...was interesting and ironic that the pain control doctor was stingy as could be with them so i was in quite a bit of pain for about 6 weeks in the transition.
People demonize the drugs and the doctors to the point where, when our son was in his last 3 months of succumbing to cancer, the doctors were also very stingy with his pain meds so he suffered a lot more than necessary because doctors are afraid of being blamed for what patients do.
Unless they’re running a drug operation like dealers, doctors should be any more liable than gun sellers or car sellers when a product they deal in is used for bad purposes.
I DO NOT want to see a good man like yourself suffer.
But if 300!! roxys are given, say they’re 40 mgs each, that’s almost 300mgs a day!!
And I took 160mgs for thalamic stroke syndrome. Because of the nature of the injury (phantom pain) there was no relief so I stopped.
Perhaps people in Extremely high doses should only be given 2 weeks dosage at a time?
To protect the doctors and themselves?
I dunno. Just an idea.
BTW, I WAS offered INCREDIBLE SUMS for my bottle of Roxys 11 years ago. I said NO THANKS. I’m no saint and I may have earned a crooked buck or two in my life, but I don’t deal in death.
I drove a cab at the time for extra money and as you know, I am quite an open book and a few people who found out I was on them offered big $$.
I said no thanks and dropped them off at their destination..
I have the hard stance I do because kids that I knew who were NOT WEAK but just HUMAN, succumbed to life’s pitfalls (one’s dad died in a hit n run when he was 17) and OD’d.
I know we are conservatives but we still have hearts.
And now I just see SO MANY kids addicted.
Being an adult and being given them and being a kid and given them are two different things. Most of the time.
Have a good day Trebb.
The “crisis” B.S. is caused by JUNKIES, NOT by legit Patients.
The cdc’s director’s son has OD several times and they want to blame the wrong People.
Totally agree. What we have going on is selective prosecution and its disgusting.
1. We don’t see a high percentage of drug dealers and “friends” that give out a few pills getting prosecuted for murder or manslaughter.
2. They don’t prosecute over sedation cases with controlled substances in medical settings that may be a cause of death as murder (nor should they)
3. Methadone clinics that prescribe methadone to non abstaining addicts are not being charged with murder if someone dies. (They shouldn’t be)
4. Alcohol and gun sellers have limited immunity when someone misuses their product (and they should) , so why isn’t this protection accorded to providers as well? Just saying that doctors don’t have a good enough lobby here is not a reason.
5. Why not charge the pharmacist too while we’re at this game of no personal responsibility.
I don’t know why some freepers don’t get it. Not taking personal responsibility and blame shifting seems uncharacteristic of those that should support less government intervention in our private lives.
Thanks for the insight - I have a friend who almost died on two different occasions from taking pain killers for “recreational” reasons.
While I agree that doctors shouldn’t arbitrarily prescribe high amounts of stronger dosages because they have a ready market value, I also believe that it needs to be case-by-case based on sound medical diagnoses.
Most severe pain that requires the opioids and other medications is for a limited time but there are also some chronic cases that may make a month supply a reasonable solution.
If a doctor can’t glom onto being scammed, then the doctor probably shouldn’t be a doctor.
Always plus and minus sides to every issue and always based on personal experiences which will always result in different slants....maybe Richard Gere had something when he was on stage with his prose-colored glasses and asking, “Can’t we all just get along?” as he pushed intolerant leftist ideas....(had to get a dig in at some leftist or another or i just wouldn’t feel right...)
You have some interesting life stories - always a pleasure conversing with you.
Funny, the part about Richard Gere :)
Who is currently on a “refugee” ship somewhere near the Italian coastline, or was last week.
Yeah I come to the table with a bias so I cannot give a good faith opinion of opiates.
Also, they didn’t work for me so it’s always easier to kick a drug to the curb if it doesn’t affect your life.
That’s kinda selfish!
I took Wellbutrin after my head injury because doctors said it would help with dopamine levels that may well be permanently reduced due to damage in dopamine producing areas of the brain.
It worked great. But it’s also called the poor man’s cocaine...even though shooting it up pretty much eats away your arm.
But I wouldn’t care HOW MANY people abused it, (there aren’t many) I would still want it.
And YES, I would be FURIOUS if it was restricted because of idiots and junkies.
And now that I’ve learned I’m a hypocrite, I shall start my Sunday :)
Have a good one.
You have a good one too - my fellow “hypocrite” (ain’t we all in one way or another...).
Always a pleasure.
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