The story of how that doctor-patient communication broke downhundreds of thousands of timesis what Olga wanted to understand. Though Young claimed that he also fired drug-seeking patients, Gutgsell testified in a deposition that he would meet some patients after hours and write them prescriptions anyway. Always have been for the patient. You know that. Together, they are the parents of three children and have seven grandchildren. The resulting videos are typical scenes from a medical practicepeople donning gloves, waiting in chairsspliced together over a heavy-metal soundtrack. 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. Jeffrey Young wanted to give you a real look inside his clinic. (The case did not result in a conviction.) [Laughs.] 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. Thrash metal, heavy metal, speed metal, blues, classical. Many medical providers are small-business owners who operate with limited oversight from authorities. He was always polite. You may not like my tattoos. By the end of this hearing, you will be asking what on Earth took the medical board so long, Pennebaker, the prosecutor, said in court. Khazan: In his Periscope videos, Jeff insisted it was all fun and games, and people were just criticizing him because of his style. Longoria: Opioids would be a new kind of painkiller to treat not just acute pain after an event like a surgery, but also pain that was more mundane, like chronic back pain that patients would complain about for years, but which doctors didnt have a clear cure for. Christi Calles lived 30 miles away in Lexington. Scott Deberry: I just didnt like all the bickering on social media and in that newspaper. At first, Young seemed to Reitz like an affable, outgoing dad who loved rock and practiced medicine. 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. I mean, he had his doctors lab coat on. From that day on, he saw him for everything. Supposedly candid confessions from Young about his life are interspersed with complimentary interviews with patients. The Rock Doc affectations, Louvaris said, merely show that hes different from other doctors. I cant say for sure what the right course of treatment for LaRhonda was, and where opioids fit into that. Hey! Young would continue to prescribe drugs there for two more years. Calles: I really am so thankful that he suggested that to me, because if he hadnt have, I probably wouldve never done it, because I wouldnt take anybody else seriously enough to even think about doing it. Part of the judges reasoning was that Youngs Facebook posts showed a propensity for violence., Young continued blogging from jail, somehow managing to write a few posts for a website that promotes medical providers rights to prescribe opioids freely. Fullington, who was also let go, told me she got a threatening call from Young. To date, none of the alleged victims in Youngs court case has come forward publicly to speak against him. 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. Khazan: He had an account on Periscope, the live-streaming site. Khazan: In the pilot, he presents himself as more of a friend than a medical professional. Dan Reaves, a local radio host on whose show Young occasionally appeared as part of a marketing plan, described Young as medically gifted. When PreventaGenix closed, Young was alleged to have failed to pay part of the unemployment insurance, federal tax withholdings, and final payroll for the clinic, according to a lawsuit filed by his former partners, Reitz and Patel. Listen to the trailer for, The Hard-Partying, Rock-Obsessed Nurse at the Center of a Massive Opioid Bust. 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. So, no, I cant say that. Kevin: (In a Periscope video.) Jackson nurse practitioner Jeffrey Young will await his opioid trafficking trial in jail, an appeals court decided Thursday. Khazan: Do you feel like Jeff has done more harm than good? His lawyer also declined to answer any specific allegations. So hes a little out there. He didnt pull any punches, she said. But I was willing to overlook all that, you know? Young, 43, a Tennessee nurse practitioner who called himself 'Rock Doc' and once piloted . He would still be allowed to prescribe testosterone and cough syrup with codeine, however. Music by Tasty Morsels and Nelson Nance. Khazan: Ive talked to a lot of patients over the years who feel very uncomfortable around their doctors. Some sought counseling, slept under their beds, or carried guns. Youngs pursuit of fame culminated in his attempt to launch the Rock Doc television show. Young was among them. They didnt try to become reality-TV stars. Were tracing your fucking account now, so you better be prepared to reap the whirlwind of your bullshit., As he gathered followers, Young began to deploy his social-media presence to hunt down and intimidate his former employees and ex-friends, some of whom told me they felt threatened by Young and his followers. Jackson, Tennessee. The cameraman who shot the pilot, who requested anonymity because he doesnt want to be associated with Youngs case, heard about Young through a mutual friend and visited him several times to shoot footage for what he hoped could become a reality show. He helped her a lot with her pain. They liked his plainspoken approach to medicine, a profession typically associated with jargon and elitism. Young was, in short, a medical provider who acted like everyones best friend. But, in theory, there should have been a check on all this. Some of his patients were police officers whom he would occasionally ask for favors. Khazan: I had a lot of Why on earth? questions: Why would he do this? His friend Melanie Lupino, a local bartender, said he got girlfriends easily, so she was baffled by the notion that he would have to give people drugs to get sex. He was found in his bedroom, where the ambulance service discovered an empty syringe under his pillow and empty pill bottles on his bedside table that had been filled that month. Khazan: When Jeffs indictment became public, LeAnnlike many of his former patientswas suspicious at first. And I said, And they say that youre trading sex for medication. He was like, You know, these motherfuckers lie all the damn time. [Chuckles.] (They relied on messages obtained by agents during the investigations into Young.) But as I talked to more patients, they started saying things that really surprised me. Christi Calles: His doctors office was just rocked out. I talked to him a couple of weeks ago. Young was by no means nationally or even regionally known. But that did not put a stop to Youngs ambitions. To get from pharma lab to medicine cabinet, the drug needed to pass through one of the most sacred spaces in America. Khazan: Christi Calles was the patient who loved listening to Stairway to Heaven.. Scott Deberry: When I first was going in the office, I could go in there and thered be maybe 10 of us in there. At the same time, building himself up as a renegade nurse practitioner seems to have allowed Young to sweep his faults under the rug of unconventionality. The men each contributed $40,000 to the endeavor. The allegations against Young seemed to take a toll on him, though. Young and the others were among dozens of doctors, nurses, and pharmacists arrested across seven states, targets in the nations largest takedown of medical providers related to prescription opioids. The week that followed Martin Luther King Jr.s assassination was revolutionaryso why was it nearly forgotten? Im very shocked. All rights reserved. Youre just probably not feeling good. But they never believed us. When one patient told Young over Facebook Messenger that she was in shitty health and about to jump off a bridge, he prescribed her a cocktail of several different drugs, including fentanyl. I cant wait to start being your patient again, one woman wrote. [Khazan laughs.] Khazan: And Christi also told me a very similar thing as the other patients I talked to: Shes had terrible experiences with other doctors. She texted Jeff. Scott Deberry: Everyone in his office was all white. And I was like, My mind is blown. As many as three women a day allegedly came to his office for sex, though one former employee said Young might have had sex with more women after hours. His vision was, evidently, to one day launch a reality series of the same name. And hed stream from inside the clinic sometimes. I had a brother that passed away, and when he passed away, his friends played that for him at his funeral. They are often too under-resourced and understaffed to keep a watchful eye on all medical providers. Young: (Serious, and a little angry.) In fact, he avoided doctors at all costs. Purdue voice-over: Often, it will be an opioid medication. (Green, who has since cut ties with Young, would not comment on this when I reached him, but he told the Sun that he asked another officer to look up the information.). The self-proclaimed "Rock Doc" is accused of trading powerful . They described Young to me as intelligent, as knowing almost as much as a doctor would knowor maybe even more. Naylor: Yes, he does. Khazan: LaRhonda didnt know anything about all of thisthe nursing board didnt make their investigation publicbut she was following him on social media. Strippers, tattoo artists, and rock-band groupies saw a kindred spirit in Young and came to him as patients. (The drugmaker that is most often blamed for the epidemic doesnt agree with this assessment: Suggesting that activities that last occurred more than 16 years ago are responsible for todays complex and multifaceted opioid crisis is deeply flawed, a Purdue Pharma spokesperson, Robert Josephson, said in a statement to The New York Times for a story on this issue.). Khazan: I talked to many of Jeffs patients. Aw, shit! 40 members in the TDBauto community. every time. Khazan: In 2016, Jeff tried to broadcast his world even more widely. November 7, 2018, marked the beginning of legal repercussions for Young. Visit our website terms of use at www.wnyc.org for further information. The Daily Beast Automated News Feed No Censorship, Just News. I mean, if somebody pats you on the back, that aint coming on to you. Young: (Over the sound of a pool-filtration system.) But Young was eager to let the world know that he was no typical nurse practitioner. (A meandering guitar melody enters the background. He would sometimes brag about having sex on his lunch break, sharing with his staff pictures of his conquests, three employees said. Several others dismissed the notion that Young could be sexually coercive. One patient she knew kept a cane in the trunk of her car and visited doctors offices with it in order to appear disabled so she could get more pills. Young: So, the, uh, the sinister ministerthat would be me (Fades under again.). Young was indicted on drug-trafficking charges in April 2019. A restaurant called the Little Rebel displayed a Confederate flag. In August 2015, Young prescribed MY what the letter calls a dangerous combination of an opioid, a benzodiazepine, and a muscle relaxant. Meanwhile, LeAnn Naylor, the secretary of Jacksons former mayor, first told me over email that she stood by Young after his hearing, but then recently said shed started having doubts because Young would frequently hit on her adult daughter. But he, uh He was true to himself; lets say that. Not all of them were into the whole edgy hard-rock thing at first. Tennessees nursing board, the main agency that has power over nurse practitioners in the state, launched its investigation into Young within a year of PreventaGenix opening. Every single time I went to that doctor and I left, Stairway to Heaven played. Rumors started to spread in town that strange things were going on in Jeffs office. Khazan: I was wondering if your ex-husband still supports Jeff or thinks he was a good medical provider. Even when they do, the boards are mainly composed of doctors and nurses peers, who can be reluctant to throw the book at one of their own, says Rebecca Haw Allensworth, a Vanderbilt University law professor who has studied medical boards. Khazan: Does that change how you feel about him? (The two clap each others backs in a half-hug.). Whats up kids? (Fades under.). Jackson Sun. The waiting room often overflowed with patients. I am very nervous about it, she replied. Thats not my fucking problem, all right? He wasnt in pain. A staffer, who declined to talk on the record, asked me why I was writing about him. Having hordes of fans seems to have allowed Young to buy more deeply into his own rock-and-roll fantasy, which in turn gave him the confidence to broadcast his life through even more videos and updates. Were small enough where we still talk, Jerry Gist, who was the mayor at the time, told me. He would chitchat with his patients, ask them about their latest tattoos. Khazan: This is Tanya Ballard. And were gonna send a message. They called it the single largest crackdown on prescription opioids in history. But tonally, much of the footage betrays him. had lower back pain and complained of numbness in his left arm. Never give up God is full of second chances, one woman wrote. Women were drawn to Young; he had a big house and was the first to buy everyones drink. [Chuckles.] Doctors, in theory, would only prescribe to people who needed the drugs and would monitor patients so they wouldnt get addicted. Trial dates have been set for "Rock Doc" Jeffery Young, his supervising physicians, and two more medical professionals recently indicted on additional drug trafficking charges. Why would you go to this doctor? Downtown has an old-fashioned square, a few coffee shops striving for trendiness, and some suburban standbysMcAlisters Deli, Kohls, Chilis, Panera Breadall connected by well-maintained roads and featuring black oceans of parking lots. Khazan: Anyone online could watch him, say, biopsy someones skin while listening to hard rock. He was like, No, we do Botox and stuff for people, and dah-dah-dah-dah. It fit neatly, at least, into a story I was already really familiar with: It was the greedy provider who was allegedly taking advantage of his patients. 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. I accept all insurance, he told her. Thats okay. There is a friendliness, too, that one associates with the South. Off camera, Young allegedly prescribed 1.4 million addictive pills and had sex with female patients. Jacksons cheeriness, though, is at odds with the populations somewhat grim physical health. He even convinced her to get weight-loss surgery. They didnt play Stairway to Heaven or have Periscope accounts. Occasionally he would glare at his ex-wife Dawn, who was in the gallery. (Fades under.). Jeffrey Youngs patients say he helped them like nobody else could, but prosecutors indicted him following a huge painkiller bust. Thats very distressing Yeah, Im shocked, you know? In another, he totters around with an empty bottle of bourbon and pans the camera over to Phillips, who is asleep on the couch. 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