Hes just laid back. Though both she and Reaves said Young should be held accountable for anything he did wrong, Stephanie told me that she forgave him. Later that month, M.Y. Calles: And I mean, he didnt dress like your average doctor. I mean, if somebody pats you on the back, that aint coming on to you. Whatever the inspiration, his new persona was good for business. Ballard: I dont believe Jeff overprescribed medication. 1,274 likes. Throughout Youngs year-long treatment of MY, Young failed to conduct pill counts, consult a state database meant to monitor the dispensing of controlled substances, and discuss with MY the risks of combining these drugs, according to the document. Calles: I just wasnt getting the care I needed. If PreventaGenix staffers suspected that a patient was abusing drugs, they would sometimes try to fire the patient, by telling him or her not to return to the clinic. His lawyer also declined to answer any specific allegations. This striking 6ft 3in person embodies kanji tattoos on his biceps, and the effortlessly cool personality will describe how one sees him. Two bouncers made sure she got home, but when she woke up in bed the next morning, her eyes were black, her nose was broken, and her mouth was bleeding. the rock doc' jeff young. She appreciated that he asked about her grandkids. But, in theory, there should have been a check on all this. Whats up kids? Naylor: Yes, he does. Dr. Jeff is married to Petra Mickova Petra though she is his second wife. ], Oh, you look fine to me.. No one else seemed capable of treating all her problemsthroat swelling, high blood pressure, attention issues. I mean, I worked at a bank for 15 years, and when youve worked at a bank and youve cashed checks, you have to judge people in two seconds. Then and over the ensuing months, I spoke with dozens of Youngs friends, enemies, alleged victims, and former co-workers. Purdue voice-over: Often, it will be an opioid medication. And he said, You be sure and tell them that Jeff is the best doctor Ive ever seen. He said, Promise me you will tell them that. I said, I promise I will. I said, I will tell them that., (The music plays up for a long moment, then fades out under the narration.). His vision was, evidently, to one day launch a reality series of the same name. The manufacturers and distributors of prescription opioids have been sued by dozens of states and municipalities for the damage theyve allegedly caused. He has three children, two sons, and a daughter, from his first marriage. With a heavy Mercy me, Phillips produces a pair of womens panties from a bag. He tried to ignore it, but when he woke up the next morning, LeAnn noticed he still looked really bad. Yall partying in the office? [Chuckles.] Jackson Sun. Pharmacists began to refuse to fill his prescriptions. And Im like, Oh. [A beat.] Khazan: Even LaRhonda, the retired teacher who had soured on Jeff, told me that Jeff was the rare provider who would take her pain seriously. One of his patients, Helena Louvaris, told me that Young saved her life by putting her on a diet plan. This requirement is waived, however, in cases where public health, safety, or welfare imperatively requires emergency action.). They would shut off the power so they had an excuse to close the clinic on those days. Young failed to diagnose the mans hypertension and overprescribed to him, according to court testimony, and later the patient suffered a stroke. The feds say Young . If you speak against me, she remembers him saying, youre gonna regret it.. Young became known for putting drugs into the hands of almost anyone who asked. Why would you go to this doctor? Theyre standoffish towards you. Aw, shit! Young: That was what Im going to say. You can all suck my d***. Listen to the trailer for, The Hard-Partying, Rock-Obsessed Nurse at the Center of a Massive Opioid Bust. Stephanie would accompany him to different clubs in the area, and wherever he went, she said, he was surrounded by hired bodyguards and friends she called bouncers, who were around for the times when he drank too much or flirted with women and got into fights with their boyfriends. Music by Parish Council (Dabbles), water feature (ariel), Arabian Prince in a UK World (The Feeling of Being on a Diet), Keyboard (Being There and My Atelier), and Column (The Art of Fun (Raj) and Sensuela), provided by Tasty Morsels. In 2018, a woman told police that Young put his hands down her pants during an office visit, but that apparently led to nothing. She became his patient around 2016. (The music changes tone, becoming a little more up-tempo and treble-heavy.). (Four years later, the health department received a complaint about this testosterone sideline, but the complaint was never assigned to an investigator, according to Pickering.) Khazan: I started calling up former patients to try to understand the relationship Jeff had with them, and the appeal of this whole Rock Doc thing. Khazan: When Jeffs indictment became public, LeAnnlike many of his former patientswas suspicious at first. Fact-check by Michelle Ciarrocca and Jack Segelstein. At Youngs practice, the quantities of opioids were larger than many investigations that I conducted, Shirley Pickering, a nursing-board investigator, later said in court. I have found accounts of at least 40 other medical providers in the country who have been accused of exchanging sex for addictive drugs. Why didnt anyone try to put a stop to this? I just had a lot of questions about how could this happen., Further reading: The Hard-Partying, Rock-Obsessed Nurse at the Center of a Massive Opioid Bust. He graduated from Musicians Institute in 1985, and is best known for his time with the thrash metal band Megadeth, appearing on the 1988 album So Far, So Good. He pleaded not guilty to the . (Endo denied the allegations.) In another, he totters around with an empty bottle of bourbon and pans the camera over to Phillips, who is asleep on the couch. had lower back pain and complained of numbness in his left arm. Calles: Yes. The agency also searched Youngs cellphone. Thats very distressing Yeah, Im shocked, you know? Dang, Jeff What happened? Helena Louvaris and Melanie Lupino, two of Youngs staunch defenders, both declined to speak with me when I called them back to see if they still supported him after he was jailed. They do not have serious medical side effects. She told me that while she was a patient at the clinic, she had a front-row seat to Preventagenix getting more and more popular. His wife also loves animals and works in the same clinic. I dont I dont even know what to say. So hes a little out there. Jeffrey " Jeff " Young (born March 31, 1962) is an American guitarist. A former employee said that staffers had to go to Youngs houseanother McMansionto drag him out of bed, and that he would occasionally arrive at the clinic drunk. Like, all these doctors who are really out of line and just writing so many scripts for so many addictive drugs, theyre really not being careful at all. But maybe, just maybe, he showed too much. Khazan: LeAnns story was similar to Tanyas and LaRhondas and Christis. Do you feel safe with Mr. Young being out there? a prosecutor on the case, Andrew Pennebaker, asked Pickering in court. Young had an active channel on Periscope, where he and Phillips drank and waxed philosophical. (Somber, reflective droning notes play up. Some of Youngs dalliances with his patient-friends similarly took a dark turn. What a great, great, great, great song! After he opened the new clinic, Youngs sexual behavior with patients allegedly continued, as did the towns willingness to ignore it. Stephanie, who returned to Youngs clinic after the incident at the club, said Young helped her more than any doctor shes ever seen. Everybody pay fucking attention worldwide because Im about to save this motherfuckers lifelive on Periscope broadcast! Some of the pills had been prescribed by Young. The man says if he were ever shot, he would go to Young before going to the hospital. (The two clap each others backs in a half-hug.). You may not like me. Listen and subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | Google Podcasts, The patients of the nurse practitioner and aspiring reality star Jeffrey Young say he helped them like nobody else could. The cost of producing the Rock Doc pilot, about $2,000, was entirely paid for by the clinic, Gutgsell claimed in a deposition. The clinic sat on a quiet road crammed with other medical practicesa sleep doctor, a dentist, a nephrologist, an orthodontisteach in its own . The clinics aim would be to halt the parade of miseriesheart attacks, early deaths, hospital billsbrought on by the obesity epidemic. Tanya Ballard: I think people are Just didnt like Jeff. But he, uh He was true to himself; lets say that. Editing by Katherine Wells, Julia Longoria, and Denise Wills. Were going to take the worst of the worst. But it seemed like she wasnt the only one getting pain meds from the Rock Doc. The judge denied this request, in part because, he wrote, Young has chosen to not wear a mask or practice social distancing consistently in jail., In September, Gutgsell, Youngs former office manager, pleaded guilty to federal charges for her involvement in prescribing opioids without a legitimate medical purpose.*. And the consequences might have gone beyond sexual abuse and addiction. He raises a glass filled with red wine, as if in a toast. We got a very, uh, important (Fades under.). Many of the people I interviewedincluding some of Youngs former patients and employeesasked to remain anonymous, often because they feared retribution at the hands of Young and his friends. At least 50 women are thought to have come to the clinic to have sex with Young, some of them allegedly doing so in exchange for drugs, according to court testimony. He would chitchat with his patients, ask them about their latest tattoos. I cant say for sure what the right course of treatment for LaRhonda was, and where opioids fit into that. The allegations against Young point toward an especially sordid type of abuse in which some doctors victimize patients twice: first by getting them addicted to drugs, and then by sexually exploiting them. In 2020, had he not been indicted, he would have been allowed to petition to have his prescribing privileges reinstated, as long as he agreed to extra monitoring. He blasted heavy metal at his private practice and filled his Instagram feed with photos of himself smoking cigars. She told me that Jeff took her pain seriously. M.Y. Young was among them. He has been arrested several times, though not convicted, for assaulting women. Other doctors dont post pictures of themselves with motorcycles and scantily clad women, either. And doctorswho work in what is, after all, a service professionsometimes feel that its easier to pacify the patient than to push back. Doctors, in theory, would only prescribe to people who needed the drugs and would monitor patients so they wouldnt get addicted. Khazan: Christi had really appreciated what Jeff did for her. Because he prescribed my opiates, and I took them as prescribed, and I had no problems with it. By 2012, Young was allegedly supplying testosterone without a clear medical reason to high schoolers who wanted to bulk up. In an email to The Atlantic, Working said that when it came to Phillipss actions, there was no direct threat. Employees I spoke with said he eventually was seeing 50 to 85 patients a day, compared with about 20 for the average doctor, and most of them seemed to be on opioids. But tonally, much of the footage betrays him. Music by Tasty Morsels and Nelson Nance. How far can medical providers go in giving patients what they want? According to a medical-board report, one employee recalled Young having sex in his office with a patient who appeared to be drugged; when Young left, she was passed out on the couch. Youngs case provides a rare glimpse into the ways patients wind up addicted to the powerful painkillers fueling the national opioid epidemic. But Young soon revealed a blustering personality that started to overwhelm the team project. And it was immediately clear that he is not your average medical provider. Our team also includes Gabrielle Berbey, Emily Botein, Matt Collette, Tracie Hunte, and me, Natalia Ramirez. Doctors offices make money by billing insurance companies for the services the providers perform, but it was hard to do this at PreventaGenix because the documentation for Youngs visits was so shoddy. They didnt have tattoos. I am very nervous about it, she replied. Rumors started to spread in town that strange things were going on in Jeffs office. Khazan: Looking at all the allegations, I mean, its overprescribingoverprescribing to someone whose pill bottles had his name on them and who died of a drug overdose. Yes. (Fades under.). Years active. Jeff didnt monitor M.Y.s use, or talk to him about the danger of combining drugs. Early in the epidemic, Purdue gave doctors OxyContin fishing hats and swing-music CDs to encourage them to prescribe more of the drug. The pilot footagesome of which Young posted to YouTube, and some of which I obtained from a person who was once close to Youngportrays the Rock Doc as a medical bad boy whos willing to break free from the establishment to deliver real talk. A new court filing, first reported by The Tennessean last week, portrays the Rock Doc as a menacing figure at the intersection of the opioid crisis and the #MeToo movement. (Plucky yet funky music plays. [Laughs.] Sometimes the two men would fight, and broken glass would litter the floor. Khazan: In one sense, I understand some of Jeffs patients defensiveness toward him. Patients, meanwhile, dont always know that medical boards exist in the first place, or that they can complain to them if theyve been wronged, Lisa Robin, the chief advocacy officer for the Federation of State Medical Boards, says. Khazan: Does that change how you feel about him? Christi Calles lived 30 miles away in Lexington. Hes prescribing drugs that people want, another man added. To a different patient, he wrote, Come fuck me at my office right now., It is not illegal for doctors to have sex with their patients, though its considered unethical. Oh, look, I got a new haircut today (Fades under.). Angele Latham. Scott Deberry: But after a while, when you read stuff, how many people could be wrong? I said, um, So what are yall doing after-hour? Like many actual rock stars, he flamed out on his own extravagant lifestyle. Sometimes patients seeking opioids go to different providers until they find one who is willing to prescribe to them. Khazan: Tanya had a different theory about where all the criticism was actually coming from. Five other medical providers, just in Jackson, were indicted too. Occasionally he would glare at his ex-wife Dawn, who was in the gallery. Even now, I cant say that. Patients would spend an hour or two in the waiting room, only to get a rushed exam and prescription. (One employee, Karla Wright, testified later that she had never seen Young have sex with women at the office. I had a lot of Why on earth? questions, the Atlantic reporter Olga Khazan says. He never admitted to anything that would make him look bad. During one club night, Young bought Stephanie two drinks and his friends handed them to her. Am I a misogynist, or do women just like rough sex? Young asks himself in one video. To get from pharma lab to medicine cabinet, the drug needed to pass through one of the most sacred spaces in America. Young got married, then quickly got divorced, according to several people who knew him then. Why would you go to this doctor? And even then, I didnt want to hear it. His indictment implicated him and two of his former supervising physicians, Alexander Alperovich and Andrew Rudin, and alleged that Youngs motives in prescribing controlled substances to his patients were often to obtain money, notoriety, and sexual favors. Alperovich and Rudin, the indictment claims, accepted money derived from the proceeds of the conspiracy in exchange for their purported supervision. (Both have pleaded not guilty. (Dawn did not press charges at the time, and she declined to speak with me for this story.). Calles: I dont know. Toward the end of PreventaGenix, the nurse practitioner so many people had praised deteriorated, according to former employees. Hey! Naylor: (A sharp inhale.) Khazan: I had a lot of Why on earth? questions: Why would he do this? Being around Young made her feel emotionally safe, she said. [Laughs lightly.] But when he suggested it the way he did, I took it seriously. I am a, uh, nurse practitioner. Young began arriving at the clinic smelling rancid, with greasy hair, and the clinics money problems mounted. (Patel did not respond to requests for comment.) She doesnt think Young was the one who drugged her, but she believes nevertheless that she was drugged. Jeff refilled M.Y.s prescriptions for Percocet and Valium and gave him a new one for hydrocodone. He did know exactly what to talk to him about to make him feel at ease, and he impressed that grumpy old man so much that that was his primary-care doctor and the only doctor he would see. a dangerous combination of an opioid, a benzodiazepine, and a muscle relaxant. You may not like my rock and roll, you may not like my piercings, you may not like my sexy-ass beard, but you know what? Scott Deberry: When I first was going in the office, I could go in there and thered be maybe 10 of us in there. The whole thing was Very Online. Another said, I was thinking of you today and how much you have helped me.. The men each contributed $40,000 to the endeavor. Occupation (s) Guitarist. His Rock Doc persona helped him connect with patients who might never have felt comfortable in a traditional doctors office. Always have been for the patient. Others accused me of seeking to discredit Young and slander his name. Im Julia Longoria. We thought we would close out the daythe third Periscope of the daywith a little fireside chat. Young: (Moaning.) As so often happens with irresponsible medical providers, Youngs popularity in the communityalong with an indifferent, slow-moving bureaucracyallowed him to operate for half a decade despite initial warning signs and then multiple arrests and investigations. One young man told me he went to Youngs house that year to pay cash for a vial, knowing that a traditional doctor would be unlikely to prescribe testosterone to a healthy teenage boy. There is a friendliness, too, that one associates with the South. 40 members in the TDBauto community. Will be glad to take the balance out of your ass. To another, Jeff asked, You want to come by for a checkup tomorrow? Reitz says he and his girlfriend came up with the unwieldy namea futuristic combination of prevent and genetics. 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