Many people trust doctors even when theyre harmed by their treatment, and a 2008 study found that people are more likely to spend time researching a new employer or a new car than vetting a new surgeon. I need you to find this fucker, he wrote, according to court testimony later reported by The Jackson Sun. 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. Theyre standoffish towards you. Additional audio from Purdue Pharma, The Rock Doc TV Show, @JY2RocDoc, and Bat Pig Pictures. Olga Khazan: At the time, there wasnt a lot of limits on pharmaceutical companies being able to tell doctors that. Khazan: To me, this felt immature, but it was all part of the brand. (Youngs attorney claimed in court that only about 25 percent of his patients were.) One January morning, officers swarmed the road outside the PreventaGenix building, guns drawn. Young: So Im gonna not have a cigar. The agency also searched Youngs cellphone. 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. Khazan: In his Periscope videos, Jeff insisted it was all fun and games, and people were just criticizing him because of his style. Khazan: Tanya had a different theory about where all the criticism was actually coming from. 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. When it was getting close to the end of when I was going, it would be packed. Will be glad to take the balance out of your ass. To another, Jeff asked, You want to come by for a checkup tomorrow? And you can kind of look at it like locker-room talk . ], Oh, you look fine to me.. To deal with the latter, the city, like so many others in America, has become ever more reliant on opioids. 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. The Tennessee Department of Health will not release audio recordings from a state investigation of "Rock Doc" Jeffrey W. Young II, a nurse practitioner who was allowed to stay in business . Youre just probably not feeling good. But they never believed us. Dan Reaves, a local radio host on whose show Young occasionally appeared as part of a marketing plan, described Young as medically gifted. In March 2019, the health department received a complaint that Young had inappropriate sexual contact with patients, and sent him a letter of warning without disciplining him. And even then, I didnt want to hear it. Naylor: Thats a really hard question for me to answer, because I believeour whole family believesthat he saved my husbands life. The clinics aim would be to halt the parade of miseriesheart attacks, early deaths, hospital billsbrought on by the obesity epidemic. As the nursing boards investigation of Young inched along, another agency launched its own probe into the Rock Doc. They just, like, keep their distance from you. They didnt try to become reality-TV stars. Know his wife, age, net worth, family, LaRhonda Scott Deberry: When I first met him, I thought maybe he was prejudiced. The Experiment is a co-production of The Atlantic and WNYC Studios. You need to be a certain kind of person to want a reality-TV show about yourself. She became his patient around 2016. Khazan: The first time I watched this video, I just heard Jeff making excuses. (The case did not result in a conviction.) Purdue ad doctor: These drugswhich, I repeat, are our best, strongest pain medicationsshould be used much more than they are for patients in pain. 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. Youngs devotees have maintained for years that he was a great man on a noble mission, and that people who spoke against him didnt understand his radical approach. It was a story her daughter told her about a time she got sick. (A meandering guitar melody enters the background. Eventually Shirley Pickering, the nursing-board investigator who was looking into the allegations against Young, also grew terrified of him. His lawyer also declined to answer any specific allegations. Once his colleagues were out of the business, Young began crafting a persona based around rock music and hard living. His followers across social-media accounts numbered in the low thousandshigher than a casual users, but a trifle compared with even a C-list celebritys fan base. Then and over the ensuing months, I spoke with dozens of Youngs friends, enemies, alleged victims, and former co-workers. Jeffery Dale Young known as Dr. Jeff Young or Dr. Jeff is American Veterinarian and a reality TV actor. I told him about this podcastexplained to him what a podcast was. But the allegations against him point toward what can be permissible, even celebrated, in a medical system built on profit. So, no, I cant say that. You may not like my sexy-ass beard. He didnt mind saying a curse word or two.. Longoria: Pharmaceutical companies marketed these drugs aggressively to doctors. One former employee told me its not clear whether Young was exchanging prescriptions for sex or just giving his many girlfriends the medications they asked for. 1:07. Of the women who returned my calls, none wanted to speak on the record under her real name, but all denied that Young had sexually abused them. The scenes are meant to serve as a testament to the effectiveness of Youngs work hard, play harder ethos. So, uh, here we are, sitting by the pool. His case offers a unique look at the opioid crisis. In November 2016, the health department threatened to file charges against Young before the board of nursing. Khazan: He had an account on Periscope, the live-streaming site. It was just rocked out. Young: That was what Im going to say. Khazan: But the pilot also showed the other side of Jeff. Every time. So what? I am sick of people only judging you by what you do in your personal life, one woman wrote on his Facebook page in September 2016, when Young was charged with assault after a woman claimed that he had screamed at her in the parking lot of his office. But the more time I spent thinking about it, the more I started to realize that Jeff has a point. Scott Deberry: And, you know, once you get around the tattoos and the way he talkscause he talks to you as if hes talking to you on the streets As long as he was going to take care of me and make me feel okay, or make me feel better, I had no problem with that. Youngs pursuit of fame culminated in his attempt to launch the Rock Doc television show. JACKSON, Tenn. The end is nowhere close for three medical professionals charged in a federal opioid crackdown earlier this year. Rock Doc TV. She appreciated that he asked about her grandkids. They liked his plainspoken approach to medicine, a profession typically associated with jargon and elitism. But as I talked to more patients, they started saying things that really surprised me. the rock doc' jeff young. Every single time I went to that doctor and I left, Stairway to Heaven played. [Laughs lightly.] To have a medical provider be polite to you, accept you, maybe even dig through your charts to find the root cause of your ailmentsit can be validating. Scott Deberry: You go to the doctor, and you tell them whats wrong with you, and they look at you like, Oh, its nothing. His lawyer also declined to answer any specific allegations. 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. How was a nurse practitioner whose behavior was so outrageous allowed to treat patients for so long? Hed also given her tips on how to eat better and how to lose weight. 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. Though criminal cases against doctors and nurse practitioners like Young are still relatively rare, they are growing more common. I am very nervous about it, she replied. But Young was eager to let the world know that he was no typical nurse practitioner. The feds say Young . (Later, Phillips pleaded guilty to threatening a Drug Enforcement Administration agent who was investigating Young. Young was indicted on drug-trafficking charges in April 2019. Some of the pills had been prescribed by Young. (A shudder, a gasp, then clapping and bubbling evolve into a background track.). Many told me that they didnt want to talk on the record. He has three children, two sons, and a daughter, from his first marriage. Hows it going? Khazan: And he posted dozens of videos there. Young was by no means nationally or even regionally known. Copyright 2021 The Atlantic and New York Public Radio. People who criticized Young swiftly became his enemies. 13.6k members in the AutoNewspaper community. Long after the criminal charges against him became known, many of Youngs patients and friends came to his defenseincluding some whom he had seemingly wronged. Whatever the inspiration, his new persona was good for business. Then it rewinds into nothingness.). Longoria: And what part of the crisis were you most focused on? Like many actual rock stars, he flamed out on his own extravagant lifestyle. There is a friendliness, too, that one associates with the South. And now we see the result. You can all suck my dick! he yells at the camera in one Periscope video, a stethoscope around his neck and a cigar in his hand. Five other medical providers, just in Jackson, were indicted too. MY came to PreventaGenix complaining of lower-back pain and numbness in his left arm, and asked for refills of pain medications. (Patel did not respond to requests for comment.) Right? Khazan: The Rock Doc, Jeff Young, has been in jail for almost two years, awaiting trial. I have found accounts of at least 40 other medical providers in the country who have been accused of exchanging sex for addictive drugs. They didnt play Stairway to Heaven or have Periscope accounts. (The music changes tone, becoming a little more up-tempo and treble-heavy.). I visited Youngs clinic, but, through a staffer, he declined to speak with me. Without doing a physical exam, Young diagnosed MY with chronic lower-back pain and anxiety, the letter details. Khazan: In one sense, I understand some of Jeffs patients defensiveness toward him. He was always polite. Young: Hi, my name is Jeff Young. If a patient would text him a compliment, he would blast it all over Facebook, one former employee told me. They learned to ignore it. One of his patients, Helena Louvaris, told me that Young saved her life by putting her on a diet plan. He has been arrested several times, though not convicted, for assaulting women. In 2018, a woman told police that Young put his hands down her pants during an office visit, but that apparently led to nothing. As the court spent two days scrutinizing his years of alleged misdeeds, he sat mostly silently. (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.). You can all suck my d***. (One employee, Karla Wright, testified later that she had never seen Young have sex with women at the office. Were small enough where we still talk, Jerry Gist, who was the mayor at the time, told me. One of the differences between physicians and nurse practitioners is that physicians are regulated by a state Board of Medicine, while in most states, nurse practitioners are regulated by a state Board of Nursing. So it just kind of, I guess, comforted me. Young would continue to prescribe drugs there for two more years. Its hard to hear or believe that the only provider whod ever been kind to youwho made you comfortablehad been accused of abusing other patients. In fact, he avoided doctors at all costs. He exhibited a certain tenderness as he filled syringes and sutured skin. Patients would spend an hour or two in the waiting room, only to get a rushed exam and prescription. Alperovichs lawyer declined to comment.). 14:46. He helped her a lot with her pain. Scott Deberry: Everyone in his office was all white. (Young has denied that hed had sex with the patient who appeared to be drugged.). 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. A transcript of this episode is presented below: (Abruptly, rock music begins to play, and then, just as quickly, it ends with a light echo.). 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: And sometimes theyd even ask their followers and fans to back them up. Young: (Moaning.) Several others dismissed the notion that Young could be sexually coercive. Khazan: LaRhonda Scott Deberry is a 54-year-old former teacher who lives in Memphis. Young: Very nice. Its joined at points by a line of harmony played on a synthesizer.). So you got to be a good judge of character. Khazan: A lot of them, unfortunately, went with it. 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. Hed wear Halloween masks and make off-color jokes. The entire epidemic has been an unending story of doctors, pharmaceutical executives, and public officials blithely ignoring signs of danger. All of them said that they didnt think Jeff sexually abused them. Several people suggested suing for defamation a news station that reported on the incident. Longoria: This week, Olga Khazan peers into an internet portal to try to find one answer to how on earth we found ourselves in an opioid crisis. Young was, in short, a medical provider who acted like everyones best friend. 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