Talk:William Hurwitz

Untitled

• "Juggling Figures, and Justice, in a Doctor’s Trial", NYTimes, July 3, 2007 gives later info re his acquittal.

BTW, while i'm not sure how to effect an appropriate lk (e.g., via an article abt such cases collectively), readers are likely to be interested in "When Is a Pain Doctor a Drug Pusher?" in the NYT Magazine 2007/06/17. (Or to confuse the two doctors, as i initially did.) Its subject is Ronald McIver, another pain doctor, 63 years old, who is serving 30 years for seemingly similar behavior & has exhausted his appeals.
--Jerzy•t 19:49, 4 July 2007 (UTC)

IT seems to me clear that pretty much the entire 'effects of patients' section of this article is NPOV and has almost no sourcing. I believe it should be deleted or rewrittenBsnjon (talk) 05:13, 12 September 2011 (UTC)

I actually recall this and the New York case. My wife is a chronic pain patient and began, starting when these cases began, to have great difficulty in getting her opioid pain medication refilled by our family physician. He sent her to a pain management specialist, who agreed that she required opioid medications and referred her back to our family physician, who wrote a treatment plan of normal dosage, but prescribed one tablet (which lasts 4-6 hours) per day. So, we changed physicians, after over 25 years with that one, to a physician who stays with her treatment plan and obeys the law.Wzrd1 (talk) 01:04, 15 August 2012 (UTC)

To the above user, "Wzrd1" - I too, am going thru what your wife went thru, only in my case, so far I have not found appropriate treatment for my arachnoiditis. At the same time as Hurwitz went to jail also worse when he was convicted for the second time, almost all "pain specialists" stopped providing proper treatment to those whose conditions have no other course besides opioids in significant dosages. It may be of special interest to you that I personally know Billy Hurwitz - not well, but I did some local TV with him, took over The National Chronic Pain Outreach Association when he resigned as its president - I became its president. This happened years earlier, the first time he got into real trouble, back in the 1996 or so time frame, and my wife and I (along with some fine members) continued to run & manage it for 12+ years, until we could finally no longer afford to personally provide the vast majority of its financial needs - we literally spent our life savings doing so, as the need to help people suffering from chronic & intractable pain, lower their suicide rates, is so very great, and has only gotten worse over the years thanks largely to the DEA & overreacting physicians - many of whom now claim that opioid use for severe CP is a bad idea, incredible. It is much easier for them to have us to just die & not bother them further. The post-911 climate hurt many charities in their ability to raise funds as well, so much attention was focused on 9/11 with many organizations springing up that in some cases did little other than effectively siphon available charitable dollars (not to take *anything* from the victims, their familes & responders, or the effort of meaningful 9111 orgs). I also refused to take any sponsorship from any drug manufacturers to push their products inappropriately, as a LOT of that also happened then, think back to how Oxycontin was marketed and the ultimate $600+ million dollar settlement with the gov't.

I mention all of this to give you some perspective on this Hurwitz situation - each time he lost his medical license, we at the NCPOA, and I personally, had to fight to place many of his patients with other physicians, and it was no easy task - we were not 100% successful, either, it was hard beyond mere words. We lost a number of them to suicide, I am sad to say. I would like it very much if you would pass along to your wife, and please know yourself, that there are those of us who know and understand her struggle - I am so happy she finally found someone to treat her appropriately. In fact, if you would like, please feel free to post a note up here with perhaps an email address or some way to get in touch, or I can leave my email if that would be appropriate. I'd like to get your perspectives on current environment for CP patients, etc., if that would be acceptable to you - and my apologies to you and to Wikipedia if my words here (my first post) violate any rules or policies, that is not my intent. If there is a way we can communicate privately somehow without posting up email addresses (or without violating Wiki policies), & you are willing, please let me know.

Update on Hurwitz - Billy has been out of prison for some time now, he was credited for the time he had already served, and so ended up doing a total of about 57 months. He now keeps a very low profile, it is hard to reach him, cannot find him via Google, etc., must go thru his lawyer. Dr. Hurwitz' career life is in ruins, we can only hope that things will get better for him - but more importantly, for true chronic pain sufferers across America. Hurwitz wasn't perfect, to be sure, but if you followed his actual case, the gov't. did some very shady things paying huge fees to expert witness & taking large amounts of time off prison sentences of former patients who were drug felons & testified against him to get time off their sentences. In Europe, we are treated far more humanely, and they also do not have the huge diversion & addition rates & issues we do here. I have not updated the article as I do not feel qualified, and don't really have the time to source everything I would say, there are others better qualified. Wzrd1, I wish you & your wife well. HendixVibrato (talk) 23:09, 22 January 2013 (UTC)

Effect on patients..& Family?

I believe section "Effect on patients" is poorly constructed. This section "Effect on patients" should be edited to "Effect on patients & Family". Please include true facts clearly available in court documents. The destructive aftermath of clear cut criminal activity's that Hurwitz was indicted for also has effects on family's. Hurwitz in "one" case, prescribed 1,600 pills to a single patient for a single day. As mentioned in section "Effects on patients"~"Others weren't so lucky: Two patients apparently killed themselves because their severe pain went untreated after Hurwitz's practice was closed." It is shame that the two former patients of Hurwitz committed suicide and the family's must bear with this pain. This section "Effects on Patients" is clearly watered down rather much.

Fact, Reason & Example Of Request to edit section "Effect on patients" According to Jerry Markon Washington Post Staff Writer the U.S. District Judge Leonard D. Wexler "Dr. Hurwitz, I don't feel sorry for you," Wexler told the former McLean pain doctor as Hurwitz stared back and bowed his head slightly. "By your behavior, you put people in jail. By your behavior, you ruined people's lives. By your behavior, you seriously injured people. By your behavior, you killed people."

Example: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A53689-2005Apr14.html washingtonpost] "I was eight months pregnant the day Dr. Hurwitz killed my mom, said Jennifer Click. Her mother, Linda Lalmond, died of a drug overdose in Fairfax County in 2000 shortly after meeting Hurwitz and being prescribed massive doses of morphine. Jurors convicted Hurwitz of causing her death."I never got to tell my mother one last time that I loved her, and this man gets to see his family once a week, Click said, pointing at Hurwitz, who looked down, grim-faced.

Example: Bryan Slaughter, a Charlottesville lawyer, represented Lalmond's family in a civil lawsuit against Hurwitz that was settled earlier this year in Fairfax. He said Lalmond died days after first meeting Hurwitz and taking high doses of morphine. "Dr. Hurwitz's treatment was so far outside accepted medical practice that the result was certainly foreseeable in Linda's case," Slaughter said. The indictment also mentions the death of Mary Nye in Prince William County on Nov. 4. Hurwitz is charged with causing Nye serious bodily injury by prescribing her large amounts of OxyContin and methadone. "Dr. Hurwitz got her hooked on narcotics and took advantage of her," said Manassas attorney Amy Ashworth, who represents Nye's widower, Paul. Hurwitz has been under scrutiny before. He lost his medical license for over-prescribing painkillers and was most recently placed on probation in Virginia in May. His marketing practices, authorities said, allowed him to keep patients in all parts of the country and Canada. The indictment alleges that Hurwitz prescribed medications in as many as 39 states, issuing the prescriptions with little or no physical examination and sometimes over the phone, fax, or the Internet.

Example:In May, the Virginia Board of Medicine placed Dr. Hurwitz on probation for what it called the improper treatment of several pain patients, three of whom died from overdoses of drugs they had been prescribed. They were identified as Rennie Buras Sr., who died in October 1999; Linda Lalmond, who died in June 2000; and Mary Nye, who died in November.

Hope is that by sharing a true event that occurred in my life, I can bring awareness to these very important issues and perhaps bring vindication of the pain I have suffered in silence for far too many years. I am hoping that Wikipedia accepts my request to edit.

My mother was the most important thing to me in this world. Unfortunately,in 1990 she was diagnosed with MS and this is where the story began. Over the last 20 years,I have watched helplessly as the beautiful, honest, smart, determined, strong, and kind woman that I loved with all of my heart began to slowly disappear. Helplessly, I watched as her once bright and loving eyes turned gray and dull. I watched helplessly as my mother, who once would extend help to anyone who would ask, could no longer even help herself. I watched helplessly as everything that was meaningful and important to her disappeared, including me. She used to wake up in the morning ready to see the day, now she sits in the same chair as each day passes and she sees nothing, and she does not care that she doesn’t..In 1997 she was taken by her sibling who also served as her durable power of attorney for finance and healthcare, out of state to a Dr. Hurwitz from Mcleane, Virginia where despite all reputable doctors’ recommendations and warnings, she received prescriptions for lethal doses of opiate medications (see article below and there are many more).

My Mothers sibling took on the role as her durable power of attorney during a time when a substantial inheritance from their parents deaths’ were in dispute with an outside executor. Each day, each month, with each pill, I saw less of the person I had known as my mother, until she was no longer there. Being only a teenager I tried everything, but no one would listen. Until when in 2001 doctor Hurwitz was sent to jail and convicted of multiple charges for unrelated cases (see article below). Although the reality I saw that no one else seemed to be aware of was confirmed by his conviction, sadly still no one listens, because my mother still sits in the same chair..In the years leading to Dr. Hurowitz's conviction I wrote letters to the Common Wealth of Virginia and the District Attorney to bring awareness to my mother's forgotten case and I would like to think that my participation had some impact on the decision to pursue the case . But I still feel that my job has not been done. My goal is to bring awareness to the disease of MS and opiate addiction, as well as awareness and oversight to physicians’ abuse in the prescription of opiate drugs. I would also like to bring awareness to family members or loved ones who serve in a capacity to make crucial healthcare decisions, who may be making these decisions not based on the patient’s well-being but with alternative motives. By bring awareness to this issue I will not only help to educate others but to finally have the chance to get my mother the appropriate treatment and care so I may see her one day again.

Thank you for your consideration of editing this page.

McLean doctor is indicted in drug-distribution scam By Jerry Seper THE WASHINGTON TIMES

A McLean doctor once recognized as a leading authority on pain management was indicted yesterday by a federal grand jury in Virginia in a wide-ranging conspiracy to illegally distribute drugs nationwide, some of which led to the deaths of three patients. Dr. William E. Hurwitz, 57, was named in a 49-count indictment handed up in U.S. District Court in Alexandria . He was accused of conspiracy to traffic in controlled substances, drug trafficking resulting in death and serious bodily injury, drug trafficking, engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise and health care fraud. If convicted, Dr. Hurwitz, who also holds a law degree, could get life in prison. U.S. Attorney Paul J. McNulty, whose office investigated the case, said Dr. Hurwitz issued "countless prescriptions for excessive dosages" to both patients and co-conspirators, sometimes writing prescriptions for as many as 600 pills a day. He described the prescriptions as "beyond the bounds of medical practice." The indictment said Dr. Hurwitz issued the prescriptions despite knowing his patients were "abusing, misusing and distributing the drugs." More than three dozen people already have been convicted in the government's ongoing probe, most of whom were charged with selling the drugs on the black market. The prescribed drugs, the indictment said, included OxyContin, Roxicodone, Percocet, Darvon, Dilaudid, Lortab, methadone, morphine and Seconal. Mr. McNulty said the conspiracy to sell and distribute the drugs began in July 1998 and continued through January. He said Dr. Hurwitz conspired with "others known and unknown to the grand jury" to illegally distribute and dispense controlled substances in an effort to "make as much money as possible." He said Dr. Hurwitz knowingly prescribed excessive amounts of controlled substances and knew that co-conspirators were selling much of them on the black market. Dr. Hurwitz's office was raided in November by agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration, after being identified as a target in an ongoing federal investigation of doctors suspected of over prescribing controlled drugs. The agents, armed with search warrants, took patient files and financial and other records, and copied the hard drives on many of the doctor's computers. The doctor announced at the time that he was closing his office in December and, in a message on his Internet site, asked other physicians to consider his patients for transfer. He said he had patients in Virginia and elsewhere in the East and Southeast "for whom possible referrals are needed." Dr. Hurwitz was not available for comment yesterday. In May, the Virginia Board of Medicine placed Dr. Hurwitz on probation for what it called the improper treatment of several pain patients, three of whom died from overdoses of drugs they had been prescribed. They were identified as Rennie Buras Sr., who died in October 1999; Linda Lalmond, who died in June 2000; and Mary Nye, who died in November. Mr. McNulty said investigators identified patients and co-conspirators in 39 states, the District and Canada , all of whom requested prescriptions from Dr. Hurwitz via telephone, facsimile or the Internet. He said the doctor charged his patients $1,000 as an "initiation fee" and up to $250 a month as a "maintenance fee" for the prescriptions. The indictment said Dr. Hurwitz prescribed controlled substances to 470 patients, only a few of whom were terminally ill. It said Dr. Hurwitz inquired of, directed and organized various independent pharmacies to maintain large inventories of his prescribed narcotics so his patients and co-conspirators had reliable sources of prescriptions.http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:William_Hurwitz&action=submit# — Preceding unsigned comment added by SawShade (talk • contribs) 23:55, 4 May 2013 (UTC)

References

Citation formatting errors

I've added hundreds of citations and never had errors appear such as do in this entry. Maybe someone can correct the formatting. Nicmart (talk) 02:52, 28 April 2020 (UTC)