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Thursday, Oct. 22, 2009 | 2 a.m.
Gov. Jim Gibbons
Sun Coverage
Gov. Jim Gibbons was both predictable and perplexing during a speech Tuesday to health care executives at the second annual Nevada Health Care Forum.
Gibbons opened the daylong summit with a 20-minute speech in which he, predictably given his political leanings, bemoaned the federal government’s involvement in reforming health care. The debate in Congress is worrisome, he said, because “I have a hard time remembering when anything as important as health care was ever improved by having the federal government involved.”
The federal government does not belong “in your medicine cabinet, in the operating room, in the discussions you have with your health care providers,” Gibbons said.
That was the predictable part, coming from a conservative Republican.
The perplexing bit of the speech came when Gibbons complained that the latest proposed health care bill was more than 1,500 pages.
“What should be a simple process is turning out to be not so simple,” Gibbons said. “... Now how in the heck is anybody going to be able to look at 1,500 pages and assume that a simple process of health care reform is going to be simple?”
Well, nobody said health care reform was going to be simple. In fact, quite the opposite. The stakeholders — doctors, drug and device makers, hospitals, insurance companies and nurses — are entrenched, well-funded and engaged in the battle. Meaning, it was never going to be easy and everyone knew it.
•••
Dr. Kevin Buckwalter faces yet another lawsuit filed by a widow of a patient who overdosed on pills he prescribed, bringing the total number of lawsuits to five.
Dr. Buckwalter, In His Own Words
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A Deposition of Dr. Buckwalter.
Related stories
Buckwalter, a Henderson physician who was the subject of a Sun investigation in 2008, is accused of prescribing large doses of addictive and potentially dangerous narcotics and anti-anxiety medications to Stephen Richard Holden, leading to his addiction and overdose death, according to the complaint, filed Oct. 14 in Clark County District Court.
Holden’s medical record included hypertension, prostate cancer, bipolar disease, migraines, alcoholism and drug addiction, the lawsuit said. Buckwalter’s records were illegible, according to pain specialist Dr. Andrea Trescot, the plaintiff’s expert, but “there was no legible reason in ... the records to justify the use of any opioids or anti-anxiety medications.”
In December 2004 Buckwalter, a family doctor, began prescribing Holden about 40 milligrams a day of Percoset, a brand-name drug that includes oxycodone. By 2007 the doses had been increased to 80 mg of OxyContin three times a day and 30 mg of oxycodone six times a day — a total of 480 mg of oxycodone a day.
There was no justification in the medical records for the extremely high doses of narcotics, Trescot wrote in her declaration.
“This escalation of opioids reflects the opioid addiction that Dr. Buckwalter created,” Trescot wrote.
Medical records show that Holden went to drug and alcohol rehabilitation in March 2008 but continued to receive from Buckwalter prescriptions for anti-anxiety medications as well as butalbital, a barbituate, and codeine, a narcotic, the lawsuit said.
Holden’s last visit to Buckwalter was July 29, 2008, eight days before he died. He overdosed on oxycodone, codeine and butalbital, Trescot said.
Buckwalter committed malpractice by creating Holden’s addiction and then continuing to prescribe large doses of addictive and dangerous drugs even after his drug detoxification, Trescot wrote.
Buckwalter faces four other lawsuits from people who claim their loved ones died as a result of his incompetence. The Nevada State Board of Medical Examiners and Drug Enforcement Administration have taken away his license to prescribe controlled substances, and he is not currently practicing medicine.
Bryce Buckwalter, the doctor’s brother and attorney, said patient privacy laws prevent him from discussing the care provided to Holden. He said they are saddened by his death and look forward to “aggressively” defending the case, as well as the other cases against Buckwalter.
It HAS to be simple, and preferably written in Crayon with pictures for Gov'ner Gym to A) be able to read it, and B)keep his attention long enough. Just like a Kindergartner.
MAYBE we could have it done as a Comic Book!
What the Governor meant to say about the 1,500 page report was that Big Brother is taking over health care and socializing it, and there's nothing the taxpayers like myself can do about it, except kick all the democrats out of office ala-Newt Gingrich style in 1994.
Re Gibbons: Tee-hee.
Gibbons is in trouble. He is talking HC reform, when the GOP, having offered NOTHING in the HC battle but...well, nothing factual, and yet, are moving onto "Immigration".
That could get him defunded by GOP rules. It's lockstep, or nothin'.
Counting the words in a bill does not amount to reading it unless you are a repuke. Anyone ever noticed how many gopers count words and don't read bills--THEN have the audacity to complaim that there is "no time"...oh, they even say they don't. No reason to...their "faith" leads them to follow "CONservative republican ideology" EVEN THOUGH, we are a nation of LAWS and NOT religion, and they have already committed verbally, and on the congressional record, to vote against anything this congress or president does, so, counting words, they consider, at least shows they have been "near" the bill, and have "creds" to speak out against it/them. Hmmnn...wonder if bohnr will throw the final HC bill on the floor and throw a tissy fit, again...instead of counting words, he could've been reading them.
The gov won't be taking over healthcare afveteran. Haven't you heard that is pure bulloney. Your republican party of losers are identified as 20% of this country, a that fact is a new 26 year low. The repukes are becoming the party of "Nobody", rather than just the party of "No"...hehehe.
republicans' ignorance, fearmongering, and lies, are moving people way from your party so fast, and more will follow as they find out they have been lied to by the GOP, [c]hristian right, CONservatives, and the morons that believe them. Young folks are out, no way are they going to flock to your party of comb-overs and polyester thinking, with 80% of your failed party being men, and 100% being white.
So, you are fighting for the status quo and the killer insurance cartel, when the country has moved far beyond you and are fighting for equality, tolerance, and Health Care for ALL Americans.
Hopefully the GOP will keep up their hate-on for President Obama, and implode soon, with their divisive, bigoted hatred, which will allow a new party to arise from the ashes and beome a true partner in America's future.
nors is back again full of hate and racism...
In case you forgot, the following is part of one of nors recent rants:
"The entire backlash against the president, and his choices, are based in racism and bigotry.
The healthcare debate being the most perfect example--who would choose to support blood sucking insurance companies over their fellow Americans, other than a bigoted racist."
That pretty well sums up "nors" state of mind...
and your point is.....