N.C. PANEL SUSPENDS LICENSE OF DR. TALLEY

RALEIGH - The N.C. Medical Board suspended Dr. Joseph Talley's
medical license Thursday after a five-hour hearing in which patients
and fellow physicians explained why the Cleveland County doctor's
career shouldn't be over.

Under the board's decision, the Grover doctor can apply to get his
license back in 12 months.

"He's made (people's) lives tolerable when they were intolerable,"
said Dr. Jack Williams, a head and neck surgeon from Shelby who
testified on Talley's behalf. "Certainly, there must be some place in
our system for a man who's that dedicated, that caring, that
intelligent and who's loved by so many of his patients."

Talley, 64, said he hasn't had time to think about whether he plans
to reapply for his license.

"I've been negligent about one thing, and that's my own family," he
said. "I've got to get busy correcting that."

Talley is the fourth doctor to have his license suspended by the N.C.
Medical Board since January. His name will go into a national medical
database in case he tries to apply for a license in another state.

His punishment falls short of the worst penalty the 12-member board
could have issued -- revoking his license and not allowing him to
reapply for two years.

Last month, the board found Talley guilty of six charges that he
improperly treated patients with narcotics by failing to monitor and
examine some patients and failing to check whether some with
drug-abuse histories were getting drugs elsewhere.

From his small clinic, Talley became known as a pain doctor who
treated hundreds of patients with highly addicting narcotic
painkillers.

He's also being investigated by the federal Drug Enforcement Agency,
which in February seized his license to prescribe narcotics.

The medical board heard testimony Thursday from Talley and nine
supporters, including three doctors and six former patients and
friends.

The board's attorneys called three witnesses: two wives of Talley
patients and an administrator for a local doctors' network who
testified that other doctors would accept Talley's patients.

The board deliberated for about 30 minutes before issuing a verdict.

The bulk of the hearing was spent with witnesses testifying on
Talley's defense, calling him "a brilliant, brilliant man" who gives
his patients more time and attention than other doctors give.

"It's frankly awe-inspiring how much genuine care he spends with his
patients," said Dr. Alan Spanus, an Oxford University-trained pain
specialist and professor at UNC Chapel Hill. "This is obviously a
wonderfully caring and conscientious man."

In his testimony before the board, Spanus said Talley could improve
his practice by doing more regular physical exams -- something he
said the board could monitor.

"There seems to be no evidence at all that he can't change his
practice if he's required to," Spanus said. "This is very easy stuff
to monitor."

Spanus praised Talley's charts and for spending so much time with patients.

"It is still possible for a doctor in 2002 to spend this much time
with his patients ... we thought that had disappeared in the 1950s,"
he said.

Several patients came from as far as Missouri to persuade the board
not to take Talley's license.

One patient, Mary Pittman of the N.C. Outer Banks, said she's been
bedridden with horrible pain since the prescriptions Talley wrote for
her ran out in February.

"It took me two years to find him," said Pittman, who saw Talley for
a variety of ailments including migraines and severe back pain. "Now,
no doctors will help me. They say that I'm a drug addict."

Talley didn't issue any apologies when it was his turn to testify.

"I can be erased," he said, "but my record can't."

He didn't ask the board not to take his license.

"With my career gone, my financial security gone, my reputation gone,
I'm not quite ready to throw in my pride and self-respect. So I will
not tell the board what it should do."

He and his attorney, Robert Clay, both questioned why the board
brought the charges against him without warning him he was practicing
improperly, especially after Talley on numerous occasions wrote to
inform the board about the changing nature of his practice.

The medical board's lawyer, Thom Mansfield, called Talley's case one
of the most important cases the board has handled.

Disagreeing with Spanus' logic, Mansfield said the board should take
Talley's license rather than let him keep practicing while promising
to change his ways.

"This is not about depriving good people to have relief from their
pain," Mansfield said. "It's about basic medicine."