Pubdate: Thu, 21 Feb 2002 Source: Daily Press (VA) Copyright: 2002 The Daily Press Contact: http://www.dailypress.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/585 Author: Associated Press INDICTED DOCTOR SAYS PAIN PATIENTS HAVING A HARD TIME FINDING NEW PHYSICIANS ROANOKE, Va. -- Lawyers for a doctor charged with illegally prescribing narcotics asked a judge Wednesday to ease restrictions against Dr. Cecil Knox seeing patients because they are having a hard time getting appointments with other physicians. Only 26 of Knox's nearly 800 patients have managed to get an appointment with another doctor since Knox was arrested, attorney Tony Anderson told U.S. Magistrate Judge Glen Conrad, and one has died while suffering from extreme withdrawal. Knox, who was arrested Feb. 1, was to be arraigned Thursday on charges that include illegally prescribing drugs that led to the death or serious injury of 10 patients. He and four other health care workers were arrested as part of a federal fraud sting. Knox plans to plead innocent to all of the charges, Anderson said. In seeking to have some of Knox's medical priviledges restored, Anderson said only one or two doctors in Southwest Virginia and West Virginia have agreed to take on any of the Roanoke pain specialist's patients. The patients are being "shunned" by doctors aware of the criminal allegations against Knox, and suffering because of it, he said. Further, authorities should have given Knox more time than the 10 days granted to refer his patients at Southwest Virginia Rehabilitation and Physical Medicine to other doctors, Anderson said. Only 123 have picked up their medical records, he said. Assistant U.S. Attorney Rusty Fitzgerald dismissed Anderson's argument, and said the allegation that one of Knox's patients died from a lack of his care is "outrageous." "No one should die as a consequence of Knox not writing prescriptions," said Fitzgerald, who sought to have Knox taken into federal custody after his indictment. The Roanoke Valley is well-equipped with health care facilities and professionals to address the needs of chronic pain sufferers, Fitzgerald argued. Conrad agreed. - --- MAP posted-by: Alex