INDICTED DOCTOR SAYS PAIN PATIENTS HAVING A HARD TIME FINDING NEW PHYSICIANS

ROANOKE, Va. -- Lawyers for a doctor charged with illegally prescribing
narcotics asked a judge Wednesday to ease restrictions against Dr. Cecil
Knox seeing patients because they are having a hard time getting
appointments with other physicians.

Only 26 of Knox's nearly 800 patients have managed to get an appointment
with another doctor since Knox was arrested, attorney Tony Anderson told
U.S. Magistrate Judge Glen Conrad, and one has died while suffering from
extreme withdrawal.

Knox, who was arrested Feb. 1, was to be arraigned Thursday on charges that
include illegally prescribing drugs that led to the death or serious injury
of 10 patients. He and four other health care workers were arrested as part
of a federal fraud sting.

Knox plans to plead innocent to all of the charges, Anderson said.

In seeking to have some of Knox's medical priviledges restored, Anderson
said only one or two doctors in Southwest Virginia and West Virginia have
agreed to take on any of the Roanoke pain specialist's patients. The
patients are being "shunned" by doctors aware of the criminal allegations
against Knox, and suffering because of it, he said.

Further, authorities should have given Knox more time than the 10 days
granted to refer his patients at Southwest Virginia Rehabilitation and
Physical Medicine to other doctors, Anderson said. Only 123 have picked up
their medical records, he said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Rusty Fitzgerald dismissed Anderson's argument, and
said the allegation that one of Knox's patients died from a lack of his
care is "outrageous."

"No one should die as a consequence of Knox not writing prescriptions,"
said Fitzgerald, who sought to have Knox taken into federal custody after
his indictment.

The Roanoke Valley is well-equipped with health care facilities and
professionals to address the needs of chronic pain sufferers, Fitzgerald
argued. Conrad agreed.