MALPRACTICE CASE BEGINS FOR SPECIALIST IN ADDICTION WHO USED A COLD-TURKEY
METHOD

MERCERVILLE, N.J., Jan. 3 - Prosecutors began their malpractice case here
in the suburbs of Trenton today against Dr. Lance L. Gooberman, the South
Jersey addiction treatment specialist whose unorthodox cold-turkey method
of treating opiate addiction cost the lives of at least seven patients,
according to the state's complaint.

Dr. Gooberman and a detox center staff member, Dr. David Bradway, stand to
lose their medical licenses if an administrative law judge, Jeff S. Masin,
finds against them in a trial expected to last until Feb. 28.

The two have been charged with using unproven medical treatments,
administering general anesthesia without proper supervision and discharging
their patients without providing for adequate after-care.

The hearing is not a criminal trial, but one intended to determine whether
the two doctors violated state medical rules and should lose their
licenses. Several clients are suing Dr. Gooberman for malpractice damages.

Dr. Gooberman maintains that seven deaths out of 2,300 patients treated is
not an unusual postoperative mortality rate, particularly when compared
with the much higher likelihood of death for unchecked heroin users. He
will also present patients who say they were cured of their addiction after
numerous failed attempts by more conventional means.

Dr. Gooberman, a graduate of a medical school in Juarez, Mexico, said he
did not expect to lose his license, but added that he had also begun to
attend law school. Dr. Bradway is a graduate of the University of Medicine
and Dentistry of New Jersey.

Since 1994, Dr. Gooberman has operated U.S. Detox Inc. in this Philadelphia
suburb. His method, derived from techniques pioneered in Europe, involves
having a nurse-anesthesiologist put a patient to sleep for four or more
hours and inject naloxone and naltrexone, which block the effect of
opiates, putting the patient into withdrawal while unconscious.

Naltrexone pellets in a timed-release form are then also inserted under the
skin to stop any subsequent craving for drugs. Dr. Gooberman charged $3,000
to $3,600 for the procedure but stopped using it under a consent decree in
October 1999.

The procedure is used under hospital conditions, with patients remaining at
least a night, in other centers around the country. It is the outpatient
nature of Dr. Gooberman's practice, the absence of a supervising
anesthesiologist with a medical degree and the lack of postoperative care,
along with failures to warn patients of the dangers, that form the
foundation of the state's case.

Instead of monitoring patients after the procedure in hospitals, said
Douglas J. Harper, the deputy attorney general prosecuting the doctors, Dr.
Gooberman and his company sent patients home or to motels a few hours after
they had emerged from general anesthesia, often with instructions to
untrained friends or family members to administer prescription medicine,
including injections.

Dr. Gooberman maintains that some of the fatalities evidently resulted from
patients using nonopiate drugs like cocaine immediately after the
treatment. "Some of these people had multiple medical problems that were
undetectable prior to the procedure," Dr. Gooberman said during a break in
the hearing.

According to the complaint filed against the two doctors, seven patients
died within hours to a few days after undergoing the procedure. They are
identified only by their initials, and Mr. Harper started the day with the
case of Mike J., whose mother was the first witness.

Mrs. J. said she and her husband drove Mike to U.S. Detox after seeing one
of Dr. Gooberman's big yellow billboards, which promised a rapid cure from
heroin addiction. Dr. Bradway performed the procedure on April 16, 1998,
and made a follow-up phone call to their home that evening. At that point,
Mike's lips and later his hands were badly swollen, he was having trouble
breathing and had been vomiting violently, Mrs. J. testified.

"He looked at me, he closed his eyes and he never spoke to me again," Mrs.
J. testified. "He died in my arms."