Doctor Behind Deadly Drugs Survives as 'Political Correctness' Threatens Another

One doctor faces losing his license for telling a woman she's too fat, while another gets away with falsely promoting a drug that killed people, what's wrong with this picture?

Courtesy: abc.net.au

(ASHEVILLE, N.C.) - I was in Asheville, NC over the Thanksgiving holidays and enjoying my time off. Of course, I read the local Asheville newspaper nicely put under my hotel door every morning.

Marianne Skolek

An Interesting story regarding an eye doctor in Asheville by the name of Dr. Earl Sunderhaus caught my attention. Dr. Sunderhaus is awaiting word from the medical society about any actions it may take against him for making cutting criticisms of a female patient including telling her she was fat and poking her thigh. Sunderhaus could lose his medical license.

“They are chastising me for telling her she should lose some weight because it is raising the cost of health care and it is also bad for her children and she is going to end up with diabetes,” Sunderhaus said. After reading about Dr. Sunderhaus and his medical license, I thought about Paul D. Goldenheim, MD and his medical license. You see I testified against Goldenheim in Federal Court in Virginia when he as a former Medical Director of Purdue Pharma, maker of OxyContin, was charged and pled guilty to misleading physicians and patients about the addictive and abusive qualities of OxyContin.

During a courtroom break to stretch, Goldenheim caught my eye. No it wasn't quite catching my eye, it was a stare down -- more like a glare. You see Goldenheim came into the courtroom looking like a deer in headlights until something made him angry. Maybe it was my comparing him to Hitler during my testimony. So when I returned home, I prepared the paperwork to have the Connecticut Board of Medical Examiners sanction Goldenheim's medical license. After all, he pled guilty, was convicted, was fined, was put on probation for a few years and was given 400 hours of community service at a drug rehabilitation center. Compare this to an eye doctor telling his patient she is too fat.

Within a few months, I received a letter from a "registered nurse" for the Connecticut Board of Medical Examiners saying they found no cause for action against Goldenheim's medical license.

Obviously they weren't aware of the loss of lives in addictions and deaths due to OxyContin and the promoting of the drug to physicians and patients as less likely to be addictive or abused by the company manufacturing the drug.

Goldenheim

Shortly after I read that the illustrious Dr. Goldenheim made headlines in a Massachusetts newspaper. You see he was a vice president of the elite Phillips Exeter Academy Board of Trustees. After Goldenheim's sentencing in Federal Court, he offered to resign from the Exeter board.

A Boston newspaper was quoted as saying "Exeter, stupidly, not only kept Goldenheim on but promoted him to head up its search committee for a new headmaster. " [Board president] Harris was his friend from Academy days and made the case that Goldenheim was a broken man." My hope is that Goldenheim continues to be a "broken man" because there are scores of "broken families" dealing with deaths and addictions because a very dangerous drug was marketed criminally under his watch. Goldenheim was a former vice president and chief medical officer at Purdue Pharma when he and the company pleaded guilty to charges of "misbranding" their billion dollar painkiller OxyContin.

The government convicted Purdue Pharma of downplaying the addictive qualities of OxyContin. Goldenheim was convicted under something called "strict liability," meaning the government didn't have to prove that he knew about the illegal behavior; the law says he should have known about it. Even Judge Jones sentencing Goldenheim and the other two CEO's of Purdue Pharma, Michael Friedman and Howard Udell was upset that he could not impose "jail time." So maybe I need to ask Attorney General Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut who I have long enjoyed a wonderful working relationship with and a very high admiration for -- would Connecticut have taken action against Goldenheim's medical license if he had told a patient -- "You are too fat."

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Salem-News.com Reporter Marianne Skolek, is an Activist for Victims of OxyContin throughout the United States and Canada. In July 2007, she testified against Purdue Pharma in Federal Court in Virginia at the sentencing of their three CEO's who pled guilty to charges of marketing OxyContin as less likely to be addictive or abused to physicians and patients. She also testified against Purdue Pharma at a Judiciary Hearing of the U.S. Senate in July 2007. Marianne works with government agencies and private attorneys in having a voice for her daughter Jill, who died in 2002 after being prescribed OxyContin, as well as the voice for scores of victims of OxyContin. She has been involved in her work for the past 7-1/2 years and is currently working on a book that exposes Purdue Pharma for their continued criminal marketing of OxyContin.

Marianne is a nurse having graduated in 1991 as president of her graduating class. She also has a Paralegal certification. Marianne served on a Community Service Board for the Courier News, a Gannet newspaper in NJ writing articles predominantly regarding AIDS patients and their emotional issues. She was awarded a Community Service Award in 1993 by the Hunterdon County, NJ HIV/AIDS Task Force in recognition of and appreciation for the donated time, energy and love in facilitating a Support Group for persons with HIV/AIDS.

oxydeaths.com/news_chilling.htm
nytimes.com/2007/05/10/business/11drug-web.html?
blog.nj.com/njv_bob_braun/2007/07/sometimes_only_justice_can_rel.html
judiciary.senate.gov/hearings/testimony.cfm?id=2905&wit_id=6612
You can send Marianne an email at: mskolek@aol.com
oxydeaths.com