The press has presented it as a win for the prosecution, but I cannot help agreeing with Rush Limbaugh's attorney, Roy Black, that it is a victory for Limbaugh.

July 6, 2005 -- Roy Black, Rush Limbaugh's attorney, issued the following statement regarding the release today of some of Rush Limbaugh's medical records to investigators and the return of most of the records to Mr. Limbaugh.

I am confident that the State Attorney will find nothing in these records to support a charge of doctor shopping, because there was no doctor shopping. The records show that Mr. Limbaugh received legitimate medical treatment for legitimate medical reasons.

We are grateful to Judge Barkdull for providing the review of the records for relevancy that we requested. Most of the records were returned to me today, and were not given to the prosecutors. This proves our point that the State's wholesale seizure of Mr. Limbaugh's medical records was improper.

Now I think this is key. The prosecution did NOT get the wholesale access to the records that they wanted. The privacy of medical records was upheld, except insofar as they are directly related to the investigation at hand. That means no trolling through the records looking for evidence of criminal activity -- there already has to be some basis for looking at the records.

But it is the second part of Black's statement that I find interesting.

The prescription records that are in the search warrant affidavits should be put in perspective. Of the 2,130 pills prescribed, only 1,863 were painkillers, and of those only 1,733 were for hydrocodone. These were to be taken over a period of 217 days, from the date of the first prescription until 30 days from the date of the last prescription. The dose averages out to a little over eight pills a day, which is not excessive and is in fact a lawful dose.

Ninety-two percent of the pain medication was prescribed by two doctors who were treating Mr. Limbaugh for back pain. They work in the same office from the same medical file, and there could be no doctor shopping between them. One of these doctors also prescribed 117 pills of a drug used to treat high blood pressure or to help wean patients off of painkillers.

The other two doctors are the California surgeon who implanted the cochlear implant to restore Mr. Limbaugh's hearing and a Florida doctor he was seeing for follow up on the surgery. Of the 180 pills prescribed by the surgeon, 100 were vitamin pills. Of the 110 pills prescribed by the fourth doctor, 50 were non-painkillers prescribed for tinnitus, ringing in the ears.

This makes sense to me, as my wife suffers from medical condidtions that cause chronic and constant pain. Her combined dosages of all medications (not just the hydrocodone or other pain medications) is significantly in excess of the eight pills per day taken by Limbaugh. While her doctors have tried other pain medication, hydrocodone seems to be the most effective for her, and we have seen her dosage and quantity increase over the last few years. I could easily imagine the day coming when she is taking eight-a-day under doctor's orders.

The explanation of multiple doctors also makes sense. My wife has two she sees regularly, and a third she sees intermittently. Each is a solo practitioner, but they keep each other well-informed of what the other is doing. But prior to seeing her current neurologist/pain management doctor, she saw another doctor who was part of a group practice. The same was true of our former family practitioner. In both offices, she would usually see her primary physician but could see one of the others if the primary was unavailable. In both offices, whoever saw her would have access to, and make notes in, the same chart as her regular doctor. Thus while there might be different doctors writing prescriptions for her medication, there was no question of "doctor shopping", because she remained within the same practice at each office. It appears that for the bulk of the prescriptions, Limbaugh has done the exact same thing. The other two doctors would appear to be related to his much-publicized ear surgery, and seem to have written prescriptions for a negligible amount of medication.

Now I realize that Black is Limbaugh's attorney, and that as such he is supposed to present Limbaugh's side of the story. But based upon the knowledge and experience I have, the story has the ring of truth. That leaves me wondering -- why, other than celebrity, is the prosecutor in Florida pursuing this case?

Posted by: Greg at 03:22 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 776 words, total size 5 kb.