Wilmont Kreis

In The Pain Doc the fraud is more subtle. The patients are often legitimate folks with legitimate problems sometimes severe. These patients are over-treated and their insurance over-charged for services not needed, not properly done and sometimes not done at all. The patients are kept in the circle of profit by addicting them to opiates and continuing to offer false hope. Sometimes the patient is complicit to get drugs or money such as in Mr. Wrubel’s “choreographed auto crashes”. Here again, the victims are the non-complicit patients and the insurance companies, sometimes Medicare but often workman’s compensation and auto insurance which in some states can have ultra-deep pockets for the physician skilled in billing them. Read More 

Well, enough about drugs. How about the heroes of the book? I see them as three: Joe Brownstone for his honesty and ethics which again I feel represent most physicians today, Luis Martinez for finally stepping up to the plate and especially Julie Frye who could stand by no longer in spite of the potential consequences. Now I’ll move on to lighter fare and return to the Allard Series with Book Two: The Hunter.  Read More 

Marketing: I have been asked if my portrayal of drug and implement representatives is overstated. It may be in some cases, but in others, I feel it is on the mark. Even though the pharmaceutical business is generally ethical and highly regulated, they are businesses and the goal of business is to sell its product. As in other industries, the salesmen are frequently compensated by the volume of the sales. As a young orthopedic resident, I remember a drug rep assuring me that Valium was in no way addictive. I have never had a rep caution me that their product was too dangerous. Although the regulators have tried to control it, incentives like, dinners, trips and gifts still abound for receptive physicians. If you have an opportunity to peruse a medical journal, especially one on pain management, look at the ads. Are they very different from those we saw ten years ago from the tobacco industry?  Read More 

Tolerance and addiction: As one consumes opiates, one develops some level of tolerance. That is to say they require more medicine to produce the same effect. At the same time an addiction occurs making it increasingly more difficult to lower the dose or discontinue the medicine altogether. In chronic pain situation it is very common to hear the plea uttered by Derrick Forton, “I need more!”  Read More 

Trends in opiate use: When I first practiced orthopedics, outpatient pain medicine generally included codeine, Darvon, Tylenol, and aspirin. In my opinion, patients did rather well with these medicines. As time went on, stronger (and more dangerous) drugs reached the market and names like Dilaudid, Demerol, Vicodin, Lortab, Oxycontin, and Fentanyl emerged and have seen increased use annually. As these medicines became more widely used they became more available via appropriate and inappropriate sources. Now I regularly see patients with relatively simple injuries who state, “I just took a couple of my wife’s Vicodin. This appalls me. Worse yet, they are becoming available to children. Teens often find a ready source of these dangerous narcotics in grandma’s medicine chest ready for their personal use, or sale on the streets.  Read More 

Opiates are a class of drugs used in medicine primarily to relieve pain. I do not pretend to be an expert in pharmacology, but over many years of medical study and treatment of patients with painful orthopedic conditions, I can certainly speak from experience. In addition to pain relief, opiates also cause drowsiness, and frequently euphoria. They are potentially dangerous and can be deadly. They certainly have an addictive potential in many people.  Read More 

An upstanding, hardworking member of the community, Derrick Forton is the centerpiece patient in The Pain Doc. Through no fault of his own, he sustains a severe life-changing injury. His life is changed by the injury but in the final analysis is ruined by opiates.  Read More 

The Pain Docfeatures four pain doctors three of whom have lost their way. The exception is Joe Brownstone who is content taking good care of patients for a comfortable living. Make no mistake, in my opinion he represents the vast majority of physicians today. The other three started this way but faltered. Terry Webb was lured to the sirens of money and social prominence. Luis Martinez was sidetracked by issues confronting foreign physicians, and Bernard Koplinger was seduced by the green fairy of opiates. More about opiates to come… Read More 

Having practiced Orthopedic Surgery for the past few decades, I can say with some authority that the most common presenting complaint of orthopedic patients is pain of some sort—pain from fractures, arthritis, infection, and a myriad of other causes. In general, the role of the orthopedist is diagnosing the source of the pain and treating that source. Over the past several years, however, we have seen pain emerge as a disease entity where treatment of the pain is the primary goal.
Pain management has emerged as a subspecialty from, physical medicine and rehabilitation, neurology and anesthesiology, and its growth has been nothing short of explosive. As with any rapidly expanding field, new technology both diagnostic and therapeutic has appeared in leaps and bounds and as with any such meteoric growth, it is difficult to tell the worthwhile from the worthless for both the practitioner as well as the patient, especially when desperate patients and large amounts of money are involved.
This is the setting of my latest work, The Pain Doc.  Read More 

The Pain Docis now available for viewing, purchasing in print or on Kindle as well as reviewing on Amazon.com. Here’s the trailer and cover.
Arriving home after years of foreign medical study, neophyte physician Terry Webb expects his impressive new title of Doctor will open his insignificant and impoverished life to one of riches and social status. Dismayed to discover that mediocre credentials stand in his way, he finds entry into that sphere of wealth and prominence he has long coveted through a chance meeting with a fascinatingly beautiful woman.
While he and the spectacular Katarina Wynn catapult into the world of mansions, yachts and outrageous incomes, they collect a few unsavory companions as the author leaves The Corridor’s slums of Detroit for the cleaner venue of prosperous suburbs. Here he weaves an exciting and instructive tale in the world of medical fraud and prescription drug addiction where once again it is the job of Gillian Russell and Nicole Allard to intervene, bringing it to justice.

If you enjoyed The Corridor, you will love The Pain Doc—don’t miss it! Read More