PHYSICIAN DEFENDS PAIN PRACTICE

Former Patient Blames Doctor For Husband's Fatal OxyContin Overdose

RALEIGH - The list of painkillers and anti-depressants Fayleen Huffstetler
received as a patient of Dr. Joseph Talley spans 18 pages in her file and
20 years of her life, but she blames a single prescription for the world of
hurt she now endures.

That prescription killed her husband, Huffstetler told members of the N.C.
Medical Board.

"It's sad," she said. "It's just sad."

Huffstetler testified Thursday during a hearing in which Talley is
defending his right to continue practicing medicine. The medical board
accuses him of deviating from acceptable standards of care for the way in
which he prescribed powerful narcotics for pain.

Talley's practice in the tiny mill town of Grover has been accused of being
the nation's largest source of OxyContin, a narcotic pain medication that
is a favorite of drug addicts. A special agent with the State Bureau of
Investigation, Tom Readling, said Talley's practice came to the attention
of state officials when Medicaid bills statewide for OxyContin hit more
than $1 million a month, and a good portion of those prescriptions were
written by Talley.

The hearing before the 12-member medical board resembles a trial, with
attorneys presenting evidence on both sides. The case has drawn news media
attention throughout the Carolinas, and the interest of pain-management
advocates nationally who consider Talley a hero. After the hearing, which
may last into Saturday, board members will decide Talley's fate. They could
revoke his license, issue a lesser sanction or clear him.

Talley denies he has done anything wrong and contends that the board came
after him despite repeated requests for guidance in prescribing narcotic
pain medications. He told board members that his only objective has been to
end the suffering of people in pain and that no amount of physical
examinations or laboratory tests could completely guard against a few
addicts taking advantage of his prescribing methods.

"I've had just enough pain myself to know what these people feel," Talley
told the board. "Service to humanity is the highest human endeavor. Even
though you think of helping someone walk again, or restoring eyesight, I
don't think there's anything more pure than relieving pain, so long as you
don't cause them more harm."

But Huffstetler said she was caused harm. She said she began seeing Talley
in 1981 because she suffered headaches, depression and anxiety. During the
next 20 years, she said, Talley prescribed a variety of drugs, rendering
her an addict. In addition, she said, her husband began using some of her
drugs to feed his own addiction.

From the start, Huffstetler said, Talley provided unusual care.
Appointments turned into daylong affairs -- she said she once waited almost
eight hours before seeing the doctor for one scheduled visit. The backlogs
occurred because of Talley's propensity to engage in lengthy dialogues with
patients. Despite the conversations, she said, Talley never gave her a
physical exam.

"I don't remember him ever wearing a stethoscope," she said, noting that
she also never saw a patient gown at the medical office.

When she and her husband moved to Georgia, Huffstetler continued to get
prescriptions for narcotics from Talley by calling every three months. She
said he would mail the prescriptions, which she filled in Georgia. Even
after undergoing drug rehabilitation and notifying Talley's office that she
was an addict, she said, she was able to get him to write prescriptions.
Inevitably, she would relapse.

Talley's attorney, Robert Clay of Raleigh, said Huffstetler was to blame
for her own addictions.

"You lied to him and used him," Clay said.

"Probably," Huffstetler responded.

"You wanted him to treat you with narcotics," Clay said.

"Dr. Talley was the licensed doctor, not me," she said.

"Wasn't it you who used him to get your drugs?" Clay asked.

"We were both sick," Huffstetler said. "Me and Dr. Talley."

When Huffstetler and her husband returned to North Carolina in 2000 and
settled in Cherryville, they resumed seeing Talley -- until tragedy struck.
Last year, Huffstetler's husband, Roger, came home from Talley's office
with a prescription for OxyContin. One April morning, she found him on the
floor of the den, dead. An autopsy revealed he had overdosed on the opioid,
she said.

"I blame Dr. Talley for his death," she said in an interview after her
testimony. "We were addicts. You wouldn't give sugar to a diabetic child,
and this is like that."