Pubdate: Wed, 17 Sep 2003
Source: Roanoke Times (VA)
Copyright: 2003 Roanoke Times
Contact:  http://www.roanoke.com/roatimes/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/368
Author: Jen Mccaffery
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/oxycontin.htm (Oxycontin/Oxycodone)

SON, WIFE OF EX-PATIENT OF DR KNOX TESTIFY

Monte Kidd, a former patient of Knox's, died in October 2001 Son, wife
of ex-patient of Dr. Knox testify Two former patients of Cecil Byron
Knox, who were pregnant while they were under his care, also testified
for the prosecution Tuesday.

No one's exactly sure what happened during the last hours of Monte
Kidd 's life.

Family members and medical personnel agree that in October 2001, Kidd
was in severe pain in the wake of back surgery, one of many operations
on a body that weathered 37 broken bones during its lifetime.

Federal prosecutors have blamed Roanoke pain specialist Cecil Byron
Knox for Kidd's death, along with those of seven other people he treated.

But testimony Tuesday from one of Kidd's sons, Chris, in the trial
against Knox and four of his associates at Southwest Physical Medicine
and Rehabilitation in Roanoke, suggested that Knox had warned Kidd
about piling on his medications. Knox also may not have known that by
one account, his patient was in so much pain, he was thinking about
suicide.

The development marks the first fuller account of the circumstances
surrounding the death of one of the patients that federal prosecutors
say Knox, 54, and his office manager, Beverly Gale Boone, 44, helped
cause with the prescription of powerful medications outside the scope
of legitimate medical practice.

But the story of Kidd's final hours also reveals the question at the
heart of the case, whether Knox doled out prescriptions
indiscriminately, or whether he was the unorthodox and compassionate
advocate of patients no one else would treat.

Kidd, who lived in Salem, began the morning of Oct. 14, 2001, with
phone calls to Kelly Gills, central intake care coordinator for
Carilion Home Care Services.

Kidd, 39, asked Gills to contact both his doctors - Knox in Roanoke,
and Kidd's surgeon in Richmond - because he was in so much pain, Gills
testified. Kidd was also trying to reach them, Gills testified that
Kidd told her. He also said he was in so much pain he was thinking of
killing himself.

Gills testified that she told Boone in a phone call about Kidd's
suicidal thoughts. But defense attorney Tony Anderson pointed out that
Gills did not mention that she told Boone that Kidd was thinking of
killing himself in an account she typed up of what happened. Gills'
assertion that she told Boone that Kidd was suicidal was also not
reflected in a summary of an interview about the Kidd case that Gills
had with federal investigators.

And Kidd's relatives testified Tuesday that he was not suicidal.
Instead, he was optimistic, his brother Faron Kidd testified, because
he thought he was finally going to be able to get better and hunt deer
again.

On Oct. 16, 2001, Knox's office arranged with Gills for a hospital bed
to be sent to his home, and for a morphine sulfate drip to be set up,
according to court testimony. Gills called a pharmacy and ordered the
drip and also ordered a nurse to set it up.

Chris Kidd was home with his father that evening when the hospital bed
was delivered. His father was generally in good spirits, said Chris
Kidd, who is now 20.

Knox made a house call at about 6 p.m., Chris Kidd testified. The
nurse had not yet come with the morphine pump. Knox helped move
furniture and put the television on a higher elevation so Kidd could
see it, Chris Kidd testified. Knox visited with Kidd for about 30
minutes. During that time, he specifically told Kidd not to use the
morphine suckers he had already been prescribed while he was on the
morphine pump, Chris Kidd recalled.

Knox left and a short time later, a nurse came and set up and
programmed the computerized morphine pump. Kidd could still get up and
go to the bathroom, but as the morphine started to take effect, he got
more drowsy. Chris Kidd testified he never saw his father take any of
the morphine suckers.

Kidd's wife, Jenny Frei, got home from work at about 9:30 that night,
she testified. Her husband's spirits were good, she said, and he was
sitting up and eating. She went to bed between 11 and 11:30 p.m.

The next morning, at about 7, Frei found her husband dead. He was
still attached to the morphine pump. And in the trash can she had set
beside his bed, were four sticks from what had been morphine suckers.

Frei has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Knox in separate court
proceedings.

Two former patients of Knox's who were pregnant while they were under
his care also testified for the prosecution Tuesday. Chris Ann Brown
and Amie Sheaff each testified that Knox had prescribed OxyContin for
them. Brown testified that she believed she became addicted during her
pregnancy.

Roanoke neonatologist Robert Allen testified that Brown's baby girl
was born suffering the worst withdrawal symptoms he had ever seen in
this area. The baby's life was in danger during her first few weeks,
Allen said, and when the baby was discharged, she was still on a
schedule of morphine medication.

He eventually wrote a letter to Child Protective Services in Franklin
County, saying that he did not trust Brown, with her history of
OxyContin abuse, with the morphine needed for her baby. Brown's
children were taken away, she testified. She has since gone through
detox and has gotten custody of her three children back.

Sheaff also testified that she abused OxyContin during her pregnancy.
She said she crushed it and injected it. She blames some of her son's
developmental problems on the OxyContin.

But John Lichtenstein, who is representing Knox's practice in the
case, pointed out on cross-examination that the obstetrician of both
women, Christopher Keeley, knew they were on the medication. Keeley
testified that he recommended the women be weaned off the medication
during their pregnancies.

Knox decreased Brown's dosage of OxyContin and switched Sheaff to
another painkiller deemed less damaging for pregnant women, Brown and
Sheaff testified.

The trial continues today.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin