ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, August 1, 1996 TAG: 9608010055
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: Associated Press
A physician who lost his medical license in Virginia after two patients died of drug overdoses defended his unconventional methods of treating chronic pain.
Dr. William E. Hurwitz told the Virginia Board of Medicine on Wednesday that he gives huge doses of powerful painkillers such as morphine, methadone and Dilaudid to patients for whom other treatments have failed.
``For every patient I treated there was a clear therapeutic purpose,'' Hurwitz testified at a hearing to determine whether he should regain his license.
``Every prescription was given to provide the best treatment for every patient,'' he said.
Hurwitz, who lives in McLean and has an office in Washington, D.C., conceded that his patients are dependent on the drugs he prescribes, but he said that should not be held against them.
``It should have no more stigmatizing force than to say a diabetic is insulin-dependent,'' he said.
``I view addiction as really a term of third-party disapproval,'' he said. ``That moral judgment is built into the term itself.''
Hurwitz' testimony capped a three-day hearing in which dozens of his patients testified that his treatment freed them from a lifetime of pain. Some said they would contemplate suicide if they were no longer able to get prescriptions from Hurwitz.
The state presented testimony Monday from one patient, Frank R. Gianiny of Rockville, Md., who said he became nauseated and nearly comatose under drugs Hurwitz gave him for back pain.
Dr. Mitchell Max, who heads a pain research clinic at the National Institutes of Health, also defended Hurwitz.
``I think he's ... benefiting his patients in ways that other physicians have not,'' Max said.
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