A doctor’s compassion for pain gets him in trouble
“Dr. J. Howard Shegog is a ’simple man who got confused between compassion and value (of care), and it went haywire,’ said a nurse who testified Thursday in the Newport News internist’s hearing before the state Board of Medicine . . .
. . . Welsh said she worked with Shegog for six years and saw his clientele of ‘drug-seeking’ patients grow until it reached about three of every five patients. The patients frequently appeared to be impaired from substance abuse, suffering from slurred speech and an unsteady gaze, she said.
They badgered the clinic staff for painkiller prescriptions, leading to disruptions in the clinic.
A meeting between the staff and Shegog was called in the fall of 2001, Welsh said. They asked him to quit treating patients with pain management issues, and the clinic sent letters to a number of his patients advising them to see a pain management specialist, she said.
But, she said, patients seeking pain medication returned, and it got to be overwhelming.
‘The joke was, if they were men it was for lower back pain. If it was a female it was for migraines,’ Welsh said.”
Another anecdote showing that chronic pain should be left to specialists. There is no doubt that chronic pain is a widespread, and real, medical problem. However, in the rushed, conveyor-belt environment of primary care, it is difficult to spend the appropriate time to manage these patients. Many times it is easier to just write the prescription instead of engaging the patient in a comprehensive pain management plan. That is why chronic pain should be left to specialists – or else you’ll get into trouble like Dr. Shegog.
Update:
The board took away his license.
Related posts:
- Why primary care doctors shouldn’t be pain specialists
- Chronic pain and the troops
- Migraines and the stigma of chronic pain medication use
- Pot smoker breaks pain contract, sues doctor
- Has drug seeking behavior reached the tipping point?
- Hurwitz conviction: The Justice Department tells chronic pain patients to suffer
- Patient satisfaction vs pain relief
{ 6 comments }
For me the mystery has always been: who are these dudes who voluntarily go into pain medicine ?!
It has become a game of hot potato. Now the pharmacists want to officiate. I’m under investigation for treating these very same patients. The pain specialists despise treating most of them and send them to me the Psychiatrist. I suppose all doctors must eventually agree that these patients are not treatable and let them buy heroine off the streets. That’s really not a joke, but exactly where we are headed. Suspending my license won’t help the problem one bit. It will pass it on to the next compassionate sucker.
If you take Medicaid you will get a bunch of these patients and it’s hard to get read of them. I feel that I’m sponsoring their addiction with my tax money.
A good dozen or so pain specialists I have had to deal with over the last ten years…..nice enough people, but not one of them wants to medically manage a chronic pain patient.
They want to do the procedures….and get out.
Not that I blame them….but if one thinks you are getting some sort of special expertise in medical pain management from most pain clinics…..I’ve got a bridge you can buy.
Headoc, you say you’re a psychiatrist? Do you know about the Weitzel case in Utah? I believe he was a psychiatrist, the case was on 60 Minutes a while back.
My sister died at the hands of the hands Dr. Shegog. She was so drugged she was down to 69 lbs. before she went into the hospital for the last time. My family tried to tell him to stop giving her so many drugs. We even had her in Rehab which he got her out. His answer: “I’m gonna give her what she wants.”
My hat goes off to Dr. Shegog…he did what any caring , compassionate physician would do. To be honest with you, if I had a family member that was addicted to drugs (which I do), I would much rather them get the drugs from a doctor then off the streets. If he had not given those patients the meds. they would have died anyway, only sooner, from drugs off the street. People need to stop making excuses for freaking drug addicts…they are just that, DRUG ADDICTS, they are better off dead…think of the lives that they lead…seriously!!!!
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