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Mary Ann Reynolds holds a picture of her late husband, Robert, who had sought treatment for lower back pain. “I have a monster in me I can’t control … I thank you for trying to help, it was to no avail. Addicts are smart, cunning people,” wrote Robert Reynolds, a patient of two Las Vegas physicians, in a suicide note before he shot himself in October 2008.
Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2009 | 2 a.m.
Kevin Buckwalter, the former physician, no longer practices medicine after the state Board of Medical Examiners and the Drug Enforcement Administration last year revoked his licenses to prescribe controlled substances. He had been linked to eight patient deaths.
Sun Archives
- Doctor sued by families of 3 dead patients (4-28-2009)
- Doctor linked to 8 overdose fatalities (12-19-2008)
- License to prescribe lost, practice sold (11-25-2008)
- When drugs bring harm not healing (10-15-08)
- Patient’s husband remembers her wry humor, last pain-filled weeks (10-15-08)
- Her outlook darkened as her addiction deepened, journal details (10-15-08)
Sun Coverage
Dr. Buckwalter, In His Own Words
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A Deposition of Dr. Buckwalter.
Sun Topics
In the last year of his life, Robert Reynolds was prescribed narcotics by two local physicians who were supposed to be collaborating to improve his condition.
Instead, his widow says, they contributed to his death.
Reynolds’ family physician, Dr. Kevin Buckwalter, referred him to specialist Dr. Albert Yun Yeh in 2007 for help with his lower back pain. Buckwalter had been prescribing Reynolds heavy doses of narcotic painkillers before he referred him to Yeh.
But even after sending Reynolds to the pain specialist, Buckwalter didn’t stop prescribing him narcotics. In late 2007 and early 2008, Buckwalter prescribed 180 hydrocodone and oxycodone pills a month to Reynolds, even as Yeh and his physician assistant were giving the patient morphine and Soma, a tranquilizer.
“I have a monster in me I can’t control,” Reynolds wrote in his suicide note to his family. “I hate me ... I have a serious problem ... I thank you for trying to help, it was to no avail. Addicts are smart, cunning people.”
Reynolds shot himself in the head in October 2008. He was 50. He died one month before the Nevada Board of Medical Examiners stripped Buckwalter of his license to prescribe controlled substances and two months before the Drug Enforcement Administration did the same after linking him to eight patient deaths. Buckwalter has stopped practicing, authorities say.
Yeh’s Nevada medical license was permanently revoked Oct. 6 after he was charged in July with 14 felony counts by Arizona authorities — he practiced there and Las Vegas — after the DEA arrested him for allegedly writing illegal prescriptions.
Mary Ann Reynolds, the widow of Robert Reynolds, names Buckwalter and Yeh in a lawsuit filed Friday in District Court. Buckwalter is also named in a lawsuit filed Sept. 21 by the widow of Christopher Fisher, a patient who allegedly became addicted to narcotic painkillers because of the doctor’s reckless prescribing habits.
Yeh’s attorney, Dan Goldfine, said “these allegations are baseless and speculative.”
Buckwalter’s attorney and brother, Bryce Buckwalter, said they are sorry for the losses the families have suffered, but they look forward to defending the cases in court.
The lawsuits put additional faces on a prescription drug epidemic in Las Vegas. The Sun analyzed millions of DEA records in 2008 and found that Nevadans consume greater quantities of prescription narcotics per capita than residents of almost every other state — and the use and accidental overdose deaths have skyrocketed in the past decade. Experts say a primary part of the problem is doctors who are careless with their prescriptions, or who prescribe the drugs as a way to make money.
Buckwalter became a focus of the Sun investigation, and the newspaper in September 2008 published the first of many stories about his apparently reckless prescribing habits, including ones that identified four patients — Reynolds and Fisher not among them — who had prescription-drug-related deaths while under Buckwalter’s care. The initial stories were followed by the suspensions of his licenses to prescribe controlled substances.
Mary Ann Reynolds said she and Robert were an active and harmonious couple until he became addicted to narcotics in 2006. Once the addiction took hold, Robert stayed in his room and the couple fought about his drug use, she said. They eventually separated in April 2008, she said, in a last-ditch attempt to make him stop using drugs.
Dr. Andrea Trescot, a pain specialist who reviewed Reynolds’ medical records for the plaintiff in the lawsuit, said in court documents that Buckwalter acted like a “legalized drug dealer,” and that he escalated the prescriptions without a legitimate medical purpose. On top of that, Yeh and his physician assistant more than doubled his previous opiate dose without any apparent evaluation of need, Trescot wrote. There is no record that Yeh took precautions to ensure he was not feeding an addiction, she said.
The other victim, Fisher, was 29 when he died on Sept. 21, 2008, of an accidental overdose. Fisher, a fireplace installer, had been managing his shoulder pain with over-the-counter medication until he started seeing Buckwalter in September 2007. On his first visit, Buckwalter gave him 150 oxycodone tablets, 30 milligrams each, which Trescot said in court documents is five pills per day, each of a dose that’s six times as potent as is typically prescribed after surgery.
“There was no conceivable medical reason to prescribe that huge dose of medicine for the conditions described in the medical record,” Trescot wrote.
Records show that Buckwalter then increased the number of oxycodone tablets to 250 per month, and the escalation continued until the time of his death, when Buckwalter was prescribing daily eight tablets of 30-milligram oxycodone plus three 80-milligram OxyContin pills.
“It is impossible to conclude anything but that Dr. Buckwalter created an addiction for this patient,” Trescot wrote after studying the records.
Jennifer Fisher said she was with her husband during some of his appointments with Buckwalter and he never physically examined him. Sometimes the doctor would just walk into the room and ask, “What do you need?” she said.
“There was a time when he asked Buckwalter for more Somas and he gave him a double dose for the month,” she said.
Christopher Fisher knew the addiction was destroying his life and made an appointment at a rehabilitation facility, his widow said. There he was given a narcotics prescription to help stave off withdrawal until he could enter the facility. It’s those pills that caused his overdose death. She blames Buckwalter because he created the addiction, she said.
Fisher is now raising the couple’s two children alone.
The two families’ lawsuits were prepared by Dallas attorney Kay Van Wey, who specializes in suing doctors who operate so-called “pill mills,” practices where potentially dangerous narcotics are prescribed without regard to a patient’s medical need or safety. She has filed lawsuits on behalf of other families of Buckwalter patients.
“These rogue doctors like Dr. Buckwalter and Dr. Yeh have reaped enormous profits by using their prescription pads as a printing press to make money,” Van Wey said.
Hi rejco100 - thanks for your comment on my story. I always appreciate people getting into the dialogue, but must disagree with your comment about "make-believe addictions." Maybe I'm misunderstanding your point, but let me emphasize that no one credible in the scientific or medical community would say that addiction is "make-believe." There's debate about how many people actually become addicted, but it's scientifically established that some substances alter the chemical make-up of the brain and "hijack" a person's ability to control their substance abuse. To say otherwise is woefully ignorant. Also, let me point out that there are established medical standards for how doctors prescribe controlled substances -- precisely because they are potentially dangerous and addictive.
Thanks, Mr. Allen,
Some people are more susceptible to the effect (s) of drugs and alcohol than others, and the existing research validates this. Thanks for this illuminating article that highlights the danger of over-prescribing and abuse of dangerous prescription pain medications.
Sorry for their deaths, but nobody opened their mouth and shoved the pills down them. And where were the spouses or parents, surely they were aware of their better half or child getting hooked on these medications. We are responsible for all our actions. Why didn't they go to a surgeon if the back pain was so bad. The doctor should have not prescribed anymore drugs,but when they realized they were getting screwed up they should checked into a rehab.People who get addicted to pain killers know they need more and the doctor should have realized they just coming for the medicine for a high.
I am very surprised that there are not more families involved with the laws suits against Dr. Buckwalter. I know from personal expericene that he would indeed just came into the exam room and just ask, "What do you need?" or after asking a few basic questions like, "What are you here for?" he would then ask the previous question.
As for faking an addiction, yeah it can be done, but when you have pyshicians prescribing unnecessary amounts of pain meds, then the patients appear on the pharmacy black list or are black listed from Emergency rooms due to dr and pharmacy hopping....then that person has an addicition that is out of control and they may no longer recognize they have a problem.
Mr Allen, thank you for helping these familes bring to light these doings.
My prayers are with them and am sorry for their lose. May they have peace in their hearts and minds that they are not alone.
re: rejco
You know nothing about what you refer to as "make believe addiction" Try doing some research on the definition .
Dr. Buckwalter wrote way to many prescriptions this one doctor killed over 10 people .
@pharmacy board @ medical board ...How can you say you are not responsible for this doctor ? Many pharmacists have complained to you about Buckwalters script writings.Why didn't you take action in 2006? You could have saved many lives its all on you .
But what do you care you are getting paid every week , while our family suffers with grief everyday. You should have got off your butt and done something positive & removed him from his job.It took until Nov 2008 to stop him from writing controlled substance scripts.Explain that to all the families
Not a lot of people have the resources to go to rehab. However, the meds are covered by insurance most of the time. When you are adicted to pain meds it is because of the pain and once you stop the meds the pain increases by 10 times at least and the withdraws are unbarable. It way easier to keep taking meds than go through withdraws.
Tolerance to opiates is never mentioned in this article. It is a nasty fact about pain management. Instead of increasing pain medication the use of Motrin really helps.
I feel that the opiates sometimes make the pain worse because your body's natural resistance to pain stops.
In suicide, the person seems it is an easier way out than withdrawl.
There is a method that has helped allot of people..http://www.softlandingrecovery.com/
how come i never get a doctor like this. i'd love some pain medication. my doc won't give me none.
I don't think some parts of the article are fair. Especially regarding the increase utilization of pills are secondary to physicians " who prescribe the drugs as a way to make money."
I am not aware of any mechanism where you earn extra reimbursement from the prescriptions of Narcotics. There is a point to be made regarding lax prescribing techniques, but I think the main problem lies in people requesting narcotics from numerous providers. There does not seem to be a good mechanism for physicians to determine if someone is getting prescriptions from multiple sources.
Dr. Buckwalter wrote a prescription for my friend to get her released from a second DUI offense. My friend was caught driving intoxicated on strong pain medication, with more pills in an unmarked container. To help her avoid losing her license, he wrote her a retroactive prescription to take to court.
Addiction to pain medication is a very easy thing. You must respect the power of these medications and try to use lesser things like Advil or even a hot bath for lower back pain. I know this because I suffer from lower back pain. The most effective pain medicine for lower back pain I have found to be is Aleve. Sorry the dude became addicted. We can't always blame the doctors, patients need to be cautious as to what and how much they are ingesting.
re:environprotector
You are correct when you say addiction to pain meds are an easy thing.Also respecting the power is the key. Just like the article said for an addict there is nothing easy your brain wants more your pain becomes worse when it is actually a false pain. That is where it must stop. These doctors need a plan when you start to see them no one expects to be on narcotics the rest of their lives.The problem is certain people become addicted , the doctor making it happen .Come back every month for a refill I don't think so. Regulatory agencies received hundreds of complaints starting in 2005 about this doctor they did nothing and he kept prescribing. One expert in a prior story said that he believes the doctor didn't know what he was doing . He said he was not a very good doctor. Given that the Medical Board should have never renewed his license unless he went back to school you see he failed. All of the agencies failed , maybe my niece would still be alive , but like Mr. Reynolds they were ashamed of their addiction . Read Marshall Allen's other stories this addiction is just as bad as the economy .
RE: rejeco some 12-stepper must of stole your lunch money and punked you...lol your a fool......
when will people start takeing responcibility for there actions?You know what the drugs will do,but when you cant control your actions,its someone elses fault?Whats next,its the mother fault for haveing a child that raped,murdered,or robbed?Give me a break.......
I've worked with addicts and just try to understand.
Whatever can be done to take away the pain, hurt and despair will be done, period. Yes, you loathe them and cannot understand why they just can't get it together. They could care less what they hell YOU think of them.
to geenab65
You said it well you are a smart compassionate person who trys to help others thank you for understanding
:)
Never thought we would still be talking about" well no one told them to take the pills" anymore, my daughter went to him with seroius pain in her back and brain injury from a car accident, he never examined her, never looked at medical records,he lied under oath about giving her certain medications, I have been in contact with people who worked for him,he had no clue what he was doing,the only people who loved him were the drug seekers, Thank you Marshall for writing this story on the 4th Anniversay of my Daughters death, let us never forget what this man has done to many families, our neighbors, Pray to God it does not happen to your family.