Transcript for the Piece Audio version of The Intervention-Part 2

Murphy/ Part 2
Troubled Doctors: Addiction and Depression in Medicine
Airdate May 7, 2008

When a physician or healthcare provider becomes addicted to drugs, patients are at risk.

I literally quit using every single evening. Last time, never again, and then next morning I was back at work, and checked out my first syringe and used it.

That?s the voice of a Seattle doctor who was addicted to narcotics. He?s now in recovery thanks to the Washington Physician Health program. Its high rate of success is drawing national attention.

KUOW?s Patricia Murphy has part 2 in her series on addiction among healthcare providers.

Kim Jones was in a hospital in Richland Washington for a routine tubal ligation. But during the procedure the anesthesiologist removed her breathing tube prematurely. Seattle attorney Ron Perry says Jones? heart stopped beating on the table and she never regained consciousness.

?Today right now she is in the same condition she was at the end of that surgery at 4:30 on November 12, 2002. There?s been no improvement.?

The anesthesiologist was Dr. Robert Berry. It?s alleged that he was under the influence of narcotics during the surgery. The hospital that hired him didn?t know that he?d left his previous position in Louisiana for being impaired on the job.

The Jones case never went to trial. The family won an 8-point-7 million dollar settlement that will pay for her nursing home care. Perey says two days after the procedure Dr Berry went away to Oregon for drug treatment.

?He wasn?t an unpleasant guy he was.. in all honestly I think he was a very compassionate man also. He was a nice guy in denial, a nice guy who was addicted, a nice guy who I don?t think could help himself anymore.?

The Kim Jones case is an extreme example of what can happen when physician addiction goes untreated. Studies suggest doctors get addicted to drugs and alcohol at about the same rate as everyone else. But in healthcare the stakes are higher. Patient safety is paramount.

The fiduciary responsibility that all practitioners have to protect all the patients even the patients of other physicians is huge.?

That?s Dr. Mick Oreskovich. He directs the Washington Physicians Health Program. It?s a non-profit founded by the State Medical Association. It provides confidential interventions for healthcare workers affected by depression, alcohol or drug addiction.

One doctor who?s gone through that program is Doctor N, as he wants to be called.
He was addicted to the anesthesia drug Fentanyl. His use spiraled out of control until he was finally caught. He?d been going through the discard bins in the operating room looking for leftover drugs.

?I absolutely hated what I was doing. I knew it was massively wrong, and there was just no . . . no way I could justify it. And yet I was unable to not do it, and this was extremely demoralizing to me.?

?It?s a shock I know it is a shock for all of them, but I think at the same time there may be a part of them, when they?re coming in to see me, that the jig is up.

Scott Alberti is WPHP?s interventionist. He delivers a soothing yet serious message of hope to about 200 healthcare professionals a year.

?Now that their addiction is exposed they tend to catastrophize. Perhaps that they?ve destroyed their career. They may be toxic at the time that I see them so their thinking is weird. My goal is to reach out, convince them that this is the right thing to do, which is to be in care somewhere, and to get them there. And until they are in safe harbors, I?m nervous. ?

Safe harbor refers to the treatment center in Newberg, Oregon. It?s called Hazelton Springbrook. The director is Dr. Vern Williams.

?Our approach is to maximize the likelihood of long-term recovery so that means we are extremely cautious about returning physicians back to work.

Physicians usually stay about 90 days. That?s three times longer than most other patients. Williams says healthcare workers are grouped together. They can relate to the job stress, and the tendency to be a bit obsessive-compulsive. These are people who are used to being in control.

?But in the recovery process that can actually get to be a real barrier as you?re trying to move through this. And you need to figure out how to live life while not relying on that strength alone. ?

Doctor N entered Hazelton when he was 29. He would be 40 by the time he finally got sober. For starters, he refused to admit that alcohol was part of his addiction.

I resisted them. I said, I?ll quit injecting Fentayl, but when I get out of here, I?m going to drink again. It?s legal and you can?t stop me. And they said, well, we?re not going to let you out, them, until you change your mind. And they literally kept me there for five months.

Dr. N still resisted. He lost his residency. Over the course of ten years he surrendered his medical license. His marriage fell apart. He worked as a fishmonger and in construction.

Finally, it was Dr. N?s desire to be a father to his young daughter that gave him the strength to get sober. He regained his license and now works as a chronic pain physician in Seattle.

In his practice Dr. N prescribes opiates to many of his patients for pain. He says his experience helps him identify those who may have a problem.

?when your an addict you always think your fooling everyone. And you do fool a lot of people who don?t know any better. and I say you?re doing this this this and this and these are not normal behaviors. And a person who doesn?t have a problem would never do this and a person who does not have a problem would never do this. And yet you?re doing them and I think you have a problem I think you?re and addict. and then I tell them I?m gonna share with you part of my own life that I don?t normally tell patients. Then I give them a brief history of my own struggles with addiction. ?

Doctor N says he stays sober through AA and the WPHP. He realizes now that his life?s purpose is to reach out and educate suffering addicts and alcoholics. Patricia Murphy KUOW news.

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In part three of our series tomorrow. We?ll here about the growing problem of depression among physicians.

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