Talk:William Hurwitz

message: I believe section "Effect on patients" is poorly constructed. This section "Effect on patients" should be edited to "Effect on patients & Family". Please include true facts clearly available in court documents. The destructive aftermath of clear cut criminal activity's that Hurwitz was indicted for also has effects on family's. Hurwitz in "one" case, prescribed 1,600 pills to a single patient for a single day. As mentioned in section "Effects on patients"~"Others weren't so lucky: Two patients apparently killed themselves because their severe pain went untreated after Hurwitz's practice was closed." It is shame that the two former patients of Hurwitz committed suicide and the family's must bear with this pain. This section "Effects on Patients" is clearly watered down rather much. 
Fact, Reason & Example Of Request to edit section "Effect on patients"
According to Jerry Markon
Washington Post Staff Writer the U.S. District Judge Leonard D. Wexler  "Dr. Hurwitz, I don't feel sorry for you," Wexler told the former McLean pain doctor as Hurwitz stared back and bowed his head slightly. "By your behavior, you put people in jail. By your behavior, you ruined people's lives. By your behavior, you seriously injured people. By your behavior, you killed people."Jerry Markon
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, April 15, 2005; Page B01
Example:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A53689-2005Apr14.html washingtonpost] "I was eight months pregnant the day Dr. Hurwitz killed my mom, said Jennifer Click. Her mother, Linda Lalmond, died of a drug overdose in Fairfax County in 2000 shortly after meeting Hurwitz and being prescribed massive doses of morphine. Jurors convicted Hurwitz of causing her death."I never got to tell my mother one last time that I loved her, and this man gets to see his family once a week, Click said, pointing at Hurwitz, who looked down, grim-faced. 
Example:
Bryan Slaughter, a Charlottesville lawyer, represented Lalmond's family in a civil lawsuit against Hurwitz that was settled earlier this year in Fairfax. He said Lalmond died days after first meeting Hurwitz and taking high doses of morphine. "Dr. Hurwitz's treatment was so far outside accepted medical practice that the result was certainly foreseeable in Linda's case," Slaughter said.
The indictment also mentions the death of Mary Nye in Prince William County on Nov. 4. Hurwitz is charged with causing Nye serious bodily injury by prescribing her large amounts of OxyContin and methadone.
"Dr. Hurwitz got her hooked on narcotics and took advantage of her," said Manassas attorney Amy Ashworth, who represents Nye's widower, Paul.
Hurwitz has been under scrutiny before. He lost his medical license for over-prescribing painkillers and was most recently placed on probation in Virginia in May. His marketing practices, authorities said, allowed him to keep patients in all parts of the country and Canada. The indictment alleges that Hurwitz prescribed medications in as many as 39 states, issuing the prescriptions with little or no physical examination and sometimes over the phone, fax, or the Internet.
Example:In May, the Virginia Board of Medicine placed Dr. Hurwitz on probation for what it called the improper treatment of several pain patients, three of whom died from overdoses of drugs they had been prescribed. They were identified as Rennie Buras Sr., who died in October 1999; Linda Lalmond, who died in June 2000; and Mary Nye, who died in November.Jerry Seper
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Hope is that by sharing a true event that occurred in my life, I can bring awareness to these very important issues and perhaps bring vindication of the pain I have suffered in silence for far too many years. I am hoping that Wikipedia accepts my request to edit.
My mother was the most important thing to me in this world. Unfortunately,in 1990 she was diagnosed with MS and this is where the story began. Over the last 20 years,I have watched helplessly as the beautiful, honest, smart, determined, strong, and kind woman that I loved with all of my heart began to slowly disappear. Helplessly, I watched as her once bright and loving eyes turned gray and dull.  I watched helplessly as my mother, who once would extend help to anyone who would ask, could no longer even help herself. I watched helplessly as everything that was meaningful and important to her disappeared, including me. She used to wake up in the morning ready to see the day, now she sits in the same chair as each day passes and she sees nothing, and she does not care that she doesn’t..In 1997 she was taken by her sibling who also served as her durable power of attorney for finance and healthcare, out of state to a Dr. Hurwitz from Mcleane, Virginia where despite all reputable doctors’ recommendations and warnings, she received prescriptions for lethal doses of opiate medications (see article below and there are many more).  
My Mothers sibling took on the role as her durable power of attorney during a time when a substantial inheritance from their parents deaths’ were in dispute with an outside executor.  Each day, each month, with each pill, I saw less of the person I had known as my mother, until she was no longer there.  Being only a teenager I tried everything, but no one would listen.  Until when in 2001 doctor Hurwitz was sent to jail and convicted of multiple charges for unrelated cases (see article below).  Although the reality I saw that no one else seemed to be aware of was confirmed by his conviction, sadly still no one listens, because my mother still sits in the same chair..In the years leading to Dr. Hurowitz's conviction I wrote letters to the Common Wealth of Virginia and the District Attorney to bring awareness to my mother's forgotten case and I would like to think that my participation had some impact on the decision to pursue the case . But I still feel that my job has not been done.  My goal is to bring awareness to the disease of MS and opiate addiction, as well as awareness and oversight to physicians’ abuse in the prescription of opiate drugs.  I would also like to bring awareness to family members or loved ones who serve in a capacity to make crucial healthcare decisions, who may be making these decisions not based on the patient’s well-being but with alternative motives.  By bring awareness to this issue I will not only help to educate others but to finally have the chance to get my mother the appropriate treatment and care so I may see her one day again.
Thank you for your consideration of editing this page.
McLean doctor is indicted in drug-distribution scam
By Jerry Seper
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
A McLean doctor once recognized as a leading authority on pain management was indicted yesterday by a federal grand jury in Virginia in a wide-ranging conspiracy to illegally distribute drugs nationwide, some of which led to the deaths of three patients.
Dr. William E. Hurwitz, 57, was named in a 49-count indictment handed up in U.S. District Court in Alexandria . He was accused of conspiracy to traffic in controlled substances, drug trafficking resulting in death and serious bodily injury, drug trafficking, engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise and health care fraud.
If convicted, Dr. Hurwitz, who also holds a law degree, could get life in prison.
U.S. Attorney Paul J. McNulty, whose office investigated the case, said Dr. Hurwitz issued "countless prescriptions for excessive dosages" to both patients and co-conspirators, sometimes writing prescriptions for as many as 600 pills a day. He described the prescriptions as "beyond the bounds of medical practice."
The indictment said Dr. Hurwitz issued the prescriptions despite knowing his patients were "abusing, misusing and distributing the drugs." More than three dozen people already have been convicted in the government's ongoing probe, most of whom were charged with selling the drugs on the black market.
The prescribed drugs, the indictment said, included OxyContin, Roxicodone, Percocet, Darvon, Dilaudid, Lortab, methadone, morphine and Seconal.
Mr. McNulty said the conspiracy to sell and distribute the drugs began in July 1998 and continued through January. He said Dr. Hurwitz conspired with "others known and unknown to the grand jury" to illegally distribute and dispense controlled substances in an effort to "make as much money as possible."
He said Dr. Hurwitz knowingly prescribed excessive amounts of controlled substances and knew that co-conspirators were selling much of them on the black market.
Dr. Hurwitz's office was raided in November by agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration, after being identified as a target in an ongoing federal investigation of doctors suspected of over prescribing controlled drugs. The agents, armed with search warrants, took patient files and financial and other records, and copied the hard drives on many of the doctor's computers.
The doctor announced at the time that he was closing his office in December and, in a message on his Internet site, asked other physicians to consider his patients for transfer. He said he had patients in Virginia and elsewhere in the East and Southeast "for whom possible referrals are needed."
Dr. Hurwitz was not available for comment yesterday.
In May, the Virginia Board of Medicine placed Dr. Hurwitz on probation for what it called the improper treatment of several pain patients, three of whom died from overdoses of drugs they had been prescribed. They were identified as Rennie Buras Sr., who died in October 1999; Linda Lalmond, who died in June 2000; and Mary Nye, who died in November.
Mr. McNulty said investigators identified patients and co-conspirators in 39 states, the District and Canada , all of whom requested prescriptions from Dr. Hurwitz via telephone, facsimile or the Internet. He said the doctor charged his patients $1,000 as an "initiation fee" and up to $250 a month as a "maintenance fee" for the prescriptions.
The indictment said Dr. Hurwitz prescribed controlled substances to 470 patients, only a few of whom were terminally ill. It said Dr. Hurwitz inquired of, directed and organized various independent pharmacies to maintain large inventories of his prescribed narcotics so his patients and co-conspirators had reliable sources of prescriptions.http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:William_Hurwitz&action=submit#  — Preceding unsigned comment added by SawShade (talk • contribs) 23:55, 4 May 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Effect on patients..& Family? 

message: I've added hundreds of citations and never had errors appear such as do in this entry. Maybe someone can correct the formatting. Nicmart (talk) 02:52, 28 April 2020 (UTC)
thread_title:  Citation formatting errors