Pubdate: Tue, 09 Jan 2001
Source: Bergen Record (NJ)
Copyright: 2001 Bergen Record Corp.
Contact:  150 River St., Hackensack, NJ 07601
Fax: (201) 646-4749
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Website: http://www.bergen.com/
Author: Linda A. Johnson, The Associated Press
Related: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n009/a06.html

2 DOCTORS ON TRIAL DROP DETOX PRACTICE

HAMILTON TOWNSHIP -- As their malpractice trial grinds on, two addiction 
specialists accused of negligence in the deaths of seven heroin addicts 
after rapid detoxification said Monday they don't plan to do the 
controversial procedure again.

Drs. Lance L. Gooberman and David Bradway have not performed rapid opiate 
detoxification for 18 months under an interim agreement with the state 
Board of Medical Examiners, which regulates doctors. The agreement 
prohibits the doctors from again performing rapid detox as an outpatient 
procedure, but not from performing it in a hospital with an overnight stay, 
as most doctors do.

The procedure, performed under general anesthesia, involves using 
medications to ease withdrawal symptoms and flush heroin or other narcotic 
drugs from addicts' bodies in hours, rather than days, sparing them the 
worst of the ordeal.

"I'm not interested in doing this again," Gooberman, who has already spent 
more than $400,000 on his defense, said during a break in Monday's testimony.

"They'll keep coming after me," he said of state regulators, adding that 
long-idle medical equipment in his clinic is for sale.

Bradway, Gooberman's former employee, likewise said he won't resume the 
procedure.

The doctors, who say they successfully detoxified about 2,350 heroin 
addicts in Gooberman's Merchantville office from 1994 through June 1999, 
insist they followed appropriate medical standards and were not responsible 
for any deaths.

The state is trying to strip Gooberman and Bradway of their medical 
licenses. Both are charged with malpractice, negligence, and incompetence.

After presenting testimony last week from relatives or friends of patients 
who died or needed emergency care, Deputy Attorney General Douglas J. 
Harper on Monday presented his first expert witness, Dr. Herbert D. Kleber.

A psychiatrist and medical director of the National Center on Addiction and 
Substance Abuse at Columbia University in New York, Kleber has spent 35 
years treating addicts. But attorneys for Bradway and Gooberman argued 
Kleber has only observed rapid detox procedures five times and likewise is 
not an expert in anesthesia use, issues at the crux of the trial.

Administrative Law Judge Jeff Masin ruled Kleber can testify.

Gooberman's attorney, John Sitzler, has noted the clinic's mortality rate 
was only 0.3 percent. Meanwhile, heroin abuse kills an estimated 5 percent 
of U.S. addicts each year.

By doing rapid detox in his clinic, then sending the patients home with a 
relative and detailed care instructions, Gooberman says he was able to hold 
the cost to about $3,000.

Most doctors performing rapid detoxification in a hospital charge about $7,000.
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