Prescription For Abuse, Part 1d

DEA QUESTIONS CAUSE OF DEATH LISTED BY DOCTOR

SOUTH SHORE, Ky. -- On July 23, 2001, Dr. Rodolfo Santos signed a death
certificate attributing the death of Vivian Pearl Dials to natural causes
- -- specifically, cardio-respiratory arrest.

But the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration is questioning the stated
cause of Dials' death and investigating whether Santos' signing the
certificate was proper, according to a DEA report filed in Greenup Circuit
Court.

The DEA alleges that Dials, 59, was one of seven patients seen by Santos
and other doctors at a South Shore clinic who died of drug overdoses during
the previous year, according to records filed in Greenup Circuit Court.

"We have reason to believe that's what it is," Tony King, resident agent in
charge of the DEA's Louisville office, said in an interview. He declined to
discuss what evidence led the DEA to that conclusion. No autopsy was done.

Santos, who was arrested June 10 on charges that he illegally prescribed
controlled substances at the South Shore clinic, initially told a DEA agent
after his arrest that he did not remember signing Dials' death certificate,
according to a DEA report on the interview that is included in Santos'
court file. But later in the interview, he admitted he had signed it,
according to the report.

Santos also stated that Vivian Dials was not his patient and denied that he
ever prescribed medications for her, though he said he once examined her
when she complained of a foot injury.

When DEA agent Kirk Huggins asked about the cause of Dials' death, Santos
replied, "I don't know how she died, she didn't really visit the clinic."

But according to a Kentucky Board of Medical Licensure report, Santos
prescribed Dials 25 tablets of Lorcet, a painkiller, two weeks before she
died July 18 at her home in West Portsmouth, Ohio. The prescription was
filled at South Shore Drug Store, a few doors from the clinic where Santos
worked.

Santos is one of five doctors who practiced at the clinic since 1996 who
have been indicted on prescription drug charges in state or federal courts.

In his comments to the DEA, Santos did not explain who asked him to sign
the death certificate but indicated that he had spoken about Dials' death
with her daughter, Mary Katherine Dials, who was an office manager of the
clinic, according to the DEA report.

Mary Katherine Dials has been indicted on federal charges of conspiring to
distribute controlled substances. She has pleaded innocent.

Purposely making a false statement on a death certificate is illegal in Ohio.

Ohio law also requires that a death certificate be "completed by the
physician who attended the deceased" around the time of death.

Santos' lawyer, Michael Curtis of Ashland, pointed out that the DEA has not
charged Santos in connection with Dials' death. If officials believe she
died of an overdose, Curtis said, "then why didn't they charge him? . . .
Because it didn't happen."

James Shuffett of Lexington, Mary Katherine Dials' attorney, said any
assertion that Vivian Dials died of an overdose was "preposterous."