At Clinics, Tumultuous Lives and Turbulent Care
By DEBORAH SONTAG, NYT
PITTSBURGH — The patient is an addict. His doctor is an addict, too. Over the last decade, both men hit their own versions of rock bottom. For the patient, it was the concrete floor of a jail where he writhed in withdrawal. For the doctor, it was the food stamp office where, his career as a child psychiatrist in tatters, he ashamedly sought help.
Then they both found buprenorphine, the patient as a user, the doctor as a prescriber. And because of that drug, an opioid used to treat opioid addiction, they both rebounded, even thrived.
The patient, Todd Smith, 27, who had developed a painkiller addiction because of a kidney disorder and — “I ain’t gonna lie” — moved on to mainlining heroin, built a life with solidity: a car, a townhouse, a job as a mine safety inspector, a live-in fiancée and “knees worn out from praying.”
The doctor, Allan W. Clark, 52, despite losing his Ohio medical license and being on probation in Pennsylvania for eight years, built a buprenorphine business so bustling that five doctors now work under him. His South Hills Recovery Project, tucked behind a 7-Eleven and beneath a hair salon, vibrates with the hubbub of the 600 addicts treated there.
(More here.)
PITTSBURGH — The patient is an addict. His doctor is an addict, too. Over the last decade, both men hit their own versions of rock bottom. For the patient, it was the concrete floor of a jail where he writhed in withdrawal. For the doctor, it was the food stamp office where, his career as a child psychiatrist in tatters, he ashamedly sought help.
Then they both found buprenorphine, the patient as a user, the doctor as a prescriber. And because of that drug, an opioid used to treat opioid addiction, they both rebounded, even thrived.
The patient, Todd Smith, 27, who had developed a painkiller addiction because of a kidney disorder and — “I ain’t gonna lie” — moved on to mainlining heroin, built a life with solidity: a car, a townhouse, a job as a mine safety inspector, a live-in fiancée and “knees worn out from praying.”
The doctor, Allan W. Clark, 52, despite losing his Ohio medical license and being on probation in Pennsylvania for eight years, built a buprenorphine business so bustling that five doctors now work under him. His South Hills Recovery Project, tucked behind a 7-Eleven and beneath a hair salon, vibrates with the hubbub of the 600 addicts treated there.
(More here.)
Powered by Blogger
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home