DETOX DOCTORS RULED NOT NEGLIGENT

TRENTON, N.J. - Two doctors who practiced a method of rapidly detoxifying
narcotics addicts were not negligent in the deaths of seven patients, but
their licenses should be briefly suspended, a state judge has ruled.

Prosecutors had charged Drs. Lance Gooberman and his assistant, David
Bradway, with gross and repeated malpractice, negligence, incompetence and
professional misconduct. Prosecutors were seeking to revoke their medical
licenses.

The charges were filed after the deaths of seven of the more than 2,350
heroin and other addicts Gooberman and Bradway treated from May 1995 to
September 1999 at U.S. Detox Inc. in Merchantville. The doctors denied any
wrongdoing.

After a lengthy trial, Administrative Law Judge Jeff S. Masin ruled late
Friday that the prosecution had not proved any serious charges, saying the
doctors generally acted in good faith.

He recommended that each have his license suspended for six months for
violations of several medical standards, followed by two years' probation
during which their records would be reviewed, particularly if they resumed
the rapid detoxification treatments.

The violations include inadequate record keeping, in some cases encouraging
some patients to allow their cases to be described in publicity materials
for the business and not telling early patients that the procedure was
considered experimental.

Gooberman said Monday he plans to challenge those findings.

"I'm really excited about the decision," he said. "It vindicated rapid
detoxification. It was important for me to hear that we didn't hurt anybody
and we acted in good faith."

The state attorney general's office is reviewing Masin's ruling to
determine whether to file any exceptions.

Masin also recommended that Gooberman pay a total of $11,500 in civil
penalties, Bradway pay a total of $14,000 in civil penalties, and they
together pay one-third of the costs for investigation of the case by the
state Board of Medical Examiners.

The board polices doctors licensed in the state and must review Masin's
"initial judgment." It can accept his findings, reject them or modify them.

In his ruling, Masin wrote that there was nothing intrinsically
"inappropriate or especially dangerous" about the doctors' rapid opiate
detoxification procedure.

It uses medications to rapidly flush drugs out of addicts' bodies while
they are under anesthesia for about four hours, getting them over the worst
of withdrawal symptoms such as diarrhea, cramps and tremors that normally
would last for several days.

The method has been widely used in Europe and Israel, but is relatively new
in the United States. Doctors in six states offer the treatment.

Gooberman and Bradway have been barred from performing the procedure since
September 1999.

The trial began in January 2001 and continued through June 2002.

On the Net: http://lancegooberman.com/