2 DOCTORS ON TRIAL DROP DETOX PRACTICE

HAMILTON TOWNSHIP -- As their malpractice trial grinds on, two addiction
specialists accused of negligence in the deaths of seven heroin addicts
after rapid detoxification said Monday they don't plan to do the
controversial procedure again.

Drs. Lance L. Gooberman and David Bradway have not performed rapid opiate
detoxification for 18 months under an interim agreement with the state
Board of Medical Examiners, which regulates doctors. The agreement
prohibits the doctors from again performing rapid detox as an outpatient
procedure, but not from performing it in a hospital with an overnight stay,
as most doctors do.

The procedure, performed under general anesthesia, involves using
medications to ease withdrawal symptoms and flush heroin or other narcotic
drugs from addicts' bodies in hours, rather than days, sparing them the
worst of the ordeal.

"I'm not interested in doing this again," Gooberman, who has already spent
more than $400,000 on his defense, said during a break in Monday's testimony.

"They'll keep coming after me," he said of state regulators, adding that
long-idle medical equipment in his clinic is for sale.

Bradway, Gooberman's former employee, likewise said he won't resume the
procedure.

The doctors, who say they successfully detoxified about 2,350 heroin
addicts in Gooberman's Merchantville office from 1994 through June 1999,
insist they followed appropriate medical standards and were not responsible
for any deaths.

The state is trying to strip Gooberman and Bradway of their medical
licenses. Both are charged with malpractice, negligence, and incompetence.

After presenting testimony last week from relatives or friends of patients
who died or needed emergency care, Deputy Attorney General Douglas J.
Harper on Monday presented his first expert witness, Dr. Herbert D. Kleber.

A psychiatrist and medical director of the National Center on Addiction and
Substance Abuse at Columbia University in New York, Kleber has spent 35
years treating addicts. But attorneys for Bradway and Gooberman argued
Kleber has only observed rapid detox procedures five times and likewise is
not an expert in anesthesia use, issues at the crux of the trial.

Administrative Law Judge Jeff Masin ruled Kleber can testify.

Gooberman's attorney, John Sitzler, has noted the clinic's mortality rate
was only 0.3 percent. Meanwhile, heroin abuse kills an estimated 5 percent
of U.S. addicts each year.

By doing rapid detox in his clinic, then sending the patients home with a
relative and detailed care instructions, Gooberman says he was able to hold
the cost to about $3,000.

Most doctors performing rapid detoxification in a hospital charge about $7,000.