Doctors That Kill
26October

Doctors That Kill

Written by Elaine Wilson, Posted on , in Section Inspirational

Another doctor has been found guilty of writing prescriptions for painkillers for numerous patients that didn’t need them.

Dr. Al Bussam in California has been writing prescriptions for addicts for several years. In his office in Downey, California, Dr. Bussam collected an average of $3500 a day from patients who paid cash in order to get the “medicine” they "needed." The good doctor coached his patients in what to say in order to “legally” get the pills, and deposited the resulting earnings into multiple accounts, banking over 1.8 million over the course of just two years.

At least five deaths have been linked directly to Dr. Bussam and his prescriptions. While the doctor is on trial, he has agreed to “forfeit” about $450,000 of his profits. I am left to wonder if he actually realizes what he has done.

Doctors take an oath to help and protect their patients—to heal. I know so many excellent medical professionals that do exactly that. What Al Bussam did was line his pockets with the money of people too sick to stop what they were doing, who were willing to pay anything to keep their addiction going. He encouraged their lies by coaching them on how to respond to questions, then proceeded to accept the money they had from who knows where. Was it their rent? Electric bill? Car payment or even child support? What if that was the meager earnings they’d gotten that were meant to feed their family?

While obviously each addict made their own choice and Bussam did not force them into his office, he willingly supported their habit and made it into a lucrative business for himself. His $1.3 million dollar home in Newport Beach speaks to this.

Who Will Help?

What are we to do when even the doctors have become the problem in addiction? The support for it? Is it possible that someone came to him for help to recover and instead walked away with a brand new set of prescriptions?

We’ll probably never know, but as Bussam enters his trial in court, I wonder if he will be at all thinking of the lives he helped to destroy while he enjoyed financial success at their expense. With prescription drug abuse on the rise, it will be up to those that issue the medications to be vigilant—and doctors like Bussam undermine the entire mission of health care providers everywhere. Who can we trust to watch over our extended health with physicians have decided to gain from our weaknesses?

Dr. Bussam, and any other doctor that feeds the addictions of American souls, deserves a far greater punishment than forfeiting less than half of their illegal profit. A harsher a punishment must be given in order to send a message out everywhere—we must stop this epidemic of prescription drug abuse. America’s decay is now coming in the form of little pills. How can we stop it when it is being so easily encouraged?

 

This content brought to you by Forging Futures. Visit their site or call them at 1-855-898-8537.