Second Patient Dies After DEA’s Suspension of Doctor’s License

By Pat Anson, PNN Editor

A second chronic pain patient has died as a result of the DEA’s suspension of a California doctor’s license to prescribe opioids and other controlled substances. 42-year Jessica Fujimaki died Saturday, December 10th at her home in Arizona, apparently due to complications caused by opioid withdrawal.

Jessica lived with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS), arachnoiditis, stenosis and other chronic conditions that cause severe, intractable pain and left her bedridden. In the past year, she found relief through injections of the opioid hydromorphone every two hours, which allowed her to walk, have some quality of life, and take care of her husband and two children.   

That came crashing to an end in early November, when she learned from her pain specialist, Dr. David Bockoff, that his license to prescribe opioids and other controlled substances had been suspended by the Drug Enforcement Administration.

“She was frightened, because she knew what was going to happen to her if she didn’t have that medication,” said Tad Fujimaki. “There’s no way she could live without it.”

The Fujimakis were unable to find another doctor in Arizona willing to treat Jessica, and her health steadily deteriorated as opioid withdrawal set in. In desperation, they made two trips to Mexico to purchase oral opioids there, but were uncertain of the quality of medications they received.

JESSICA FUJIMAKI

A last-minute prescription for injectable hydromorphone from an out-of-state doctor failed to stop her cascading health problems. Her exact cause of death has yet to be determined, pending an autopsy.

Had the treatment that Jessica received from Dr. Bockoff continued, Tad believes his wife would still be alive today. He blames the DEA for her death.   

“Absolutely. DEA, government, all of them. If they didn’t stop the medication, if Jessica was still getting medication from Dr. Bockoff, this would have never happened,” he told PNN.

Like many patients with EDS, Jessica wasn’t diagnosed with the genetic connective tissue disease until well into adulthood. In 2020, when the Fujimakis lived in Hawaii, she had an epidural steroid injection for leg pain that made her condition far worse. Seeking better treatment, the family moved to the mainland.

“The one mistake we made was to move to Arizona,” said Tad, explaining they could find no doctors to treat Jessica near their Phoenix home.  

“Because she was too complicated a patient. They knew they can’t prescribe hydromorphone,” he said. “If we knew the state of Arizona was an anti-opioid state, then we probably wouldn’t have moved from Hawaii to Arizona. We’d have picked a different state.”

Like many other “opioid refugees” on high doses, Jessica searched for doctors out-of-state, eventually finding Bockoff, who has practiced medicine for over 50 years in California without any record of disciplinary action or complaints.

“I have no comment. A very unfortunate tragedy,” Bockoff replied in an email when asked about Jessica’s death.  

THE FUJIMAKI FAMILY

Another Bockoff patient who lived with intractable pain ran out of medication and died one week after the license suspension. Danny Elliott and his wife Gretchen were so distraught over his inability to find another doctor and get opioid treatment that they committed suicide in their Georgia home.

‘Imminent Danger to Public Health’

Why the DEA suspended Bockoff’s license is still not entirely clear. DEA agents searched his office in September, 2021 and confiscated the medical records of 240 patients, which they later returned.

Although a DEA notice of the suspension – signed by DEA administrator Anne Milgram -- states that Bockoff posed “an imminent danger to the public health,” his license was not suspended until 14 months after the initial search, when he was accused of violating the Controlled Substances Act when treating five patients.

Those allegations primarily deal with improper record-keeping and prescribing high doses of opioids that could potentially be diverted or abused. But there is no indication that any harm was caused to the five patients while under Dr. Bockoff’s care, or that they sold or abused the opioids he prescribed.

While Bockoff appeals his suspension, 11 of his patients have hired a lawyer and tried – unsuccessfully so far -- to sign on as intervenors, so they could participate in DEA hearings on the case. One of them was Jessica Fujimaki.

“With the suspension of Dr. Bockoffs license, I am left without care again. It took over a year to find the protocol that work for me and allowed me to have some quality of life,” Jessica wrote in a statement to the DEA.

“I was very fortunate to find Dr. David Bockoff, who accepted me as his patient and has been able to treat me in accordance with the treatment protocol that works for me. This treatment protocol changed my life and gave me hope,” she wrote. “I am able to walk most days unless I am in a huge flare. Without Dr. Bockoff's care and prescribed medication, I would be bedbound, unable to walk, unable to function, and certainly unable to care for my children.”

A DEA Administrative Law Judge declined to let Jessica and the other patients participate in a pretrial conference on November 28, but has not officially rejected or approved their motion to intervene in future hearings. The patients are considering other legal avenues.

Whatever happens, it’s not likely to happen in time to prevent future tragedies. Under DEA rules, doctors have 30 days to appeal their license suspensions. Legal experts say the process can then take months or years to resolve – too long for patients like Jessica and Danny Elliott, who suffered needlessly and didn’t have time to wait.

DEA Suspension of Doctor’s License Leads to Double Suicide

By Pat Anson, PNN Editor

Another chronic pain patient, along with his wife, has fallen victim to the Drug Enforcement Administration’s ongoing war against doctors who prescribe opioid medication.  

61-year-old Danny Elliott and his 59-year-old wife Gretchen were found dead in their Georgia home Monday. Police are calling it a double suicide.

Family and friends say Elliott – who lived with severe intractable pain for over two decades -- was distraught over the suspension of his doctor’s DEA license to prescribe opioids and other controlled substances. Dr. David Bockoff, a longtime pain management specialist in Beverly Hills, California, was notified about the suspension by a Department of Justice attorney last week.

“OMG. I called for my phone appt on Tuesday, apparently just a couple of hours after they took his license to prescribe. Because I was due for my next Rx’s, I’m now totally out,” Elliott posted on Twitter days before his death.

“It’s the end of the road for me with doctors. Not sure what happens now but it’s going to be brutal.”

No reason was given for the suspension, according to Bockoff. The DEA confirmed to PNN that Bockoff’s license to prescribe was suspended, but declined to comment further because the case is under administrative review.

Danny and Gretchen Elliott

“Their blood is on the DEA’s hands,” Bockoff said about the deaths of the Elliotts.

Some of Bockoff’s patients, including Elliott, traveled thousands of miles from out of state to see him because they were unable to find doctors locally who were willing to treat their pain. Bockoff can still practice medicine in California, but without an active DEA license he cannot prescribe opioids – which are essential, life-giving medications to patients like Elliott.

“I talked to my sister on Sunday,” said Eric Welde, Gretchen’s brother. “They were very distraught because they heard that Doctor Bockoff was not going to be able to grant them another prescription because the DEA had gone after him and said he couldn’t prescribe anymore, otherwise he was going to jail or something. That hit them very hard like a ton of bricks.”

Welde says his brother-in-law suffered from severe chronic headaches after he was electrocuted in a freak accident 22 years ago. A former pharmaceutical rep, Elliott was unable to work and was dependent on opioids to have any quality of life.  In the days before his death, Welde says Elliott was so desperate for pain relief that he tried unsuccessfully to buy drugs on the black market.  

“I’m angry at the DEA. And I’m angry at the whole medical system. Because he was clearly in pain. He was not a junkie,” Welde told PNN. “There’s this whole stigmatism towards pain management that you should just be able to get over it. It’s like telling a diabetic that you don’t need insulin anymore. And it’s brutally wrong.   

“But it’s perfectly acceptable to bring thousands of pounds of illegal fentanyl over and sell that on the black market. But this is a more worthwhile cause for the DEA, which just absolutely floors me.”

Bockoff Patients ‘Among the Sickest’

“This unwarranted harassment of long-established pain doctor David Bockoff is almost beyond belief,” says Kristen Ogden, whose husband Louis is a patient of Bockoff’s. The Ogdens live in Virginia and traveled monthly to California to have Louis’ prescriptions written and filled. 

“These patients, including my husband Louis, are among the sickest people there are and yet they have been able to achieve and maintain a good quality of life with Dr. Bockoff's care and the pain medications he prescribed,” Ogden said. “Now Danny Elliott, a man Louis and I were privileged to call our friend, has ended his life because he could no longer endure such horrific pain and his sweet, caring wife Gretchen apparently chose not to live on without him. Who can explain why it was okay to take away this man's medication?” 

“Just sick over Danny and Gretchen. I'm a Bockoff patient as well, all of my meds were due to fill the day his DEA registration was suspended,” says Anne Fuqua, a disabled nurse in Alabama who lives with dystonia and arachnoiditis, two painful conditions that cannot be cured.   

Fuqua and Louis Ogden are both former patients of Dr. Forest Tennant, whose office and home in California were raided by the DEA in 2017.  A DEA search warrant alleged that Tennant ran a drug trafficking organization because many of his patients came from out-of-state and were on high doses of opioids. No criminal charges were ever filed against Tennant, who retired from clinical practice a few months after the raid. 

“I’m alive today because Dr. Tennant and later Dr. Bockoff chose to put themselves on the line for high-dose patients like me,” says Fuqua.  

It cannot be overstated how difficult it is for chronically ill patients like Fuqua to find new doctors. Many pain management doctors have stopped taking new patients or retired, fearing they could be targeted by DEA or other law enforcement agencies for prescribing opioids. 

For some patients, the pain and anxiety become overwhelming. Jennifer Adams, a 41-year-old Montana woman and former patient of Tennant, ended her life in 2018. Friends say Adams’ anxiety about losing her pain medication “was eating her alive.”

‘Not Helpful to Patients’ 

Dr. Bockoff has practiced medicine in California for 53 years and there is no record of him facing any disciplinary action or complaints filed with the state medical board. His office was searched by DEA agents about a year ago and patient records were taken at that time.

Bockoff says there was no warning about his suspension or the reasons for it. 

“You’d have to ask them what their motivation is. I don’t know. But I would say it certainly affects patients. Any patient who has chronic intractable pain is adversely affected by this action,” Bockoff told PNN. “It’s quite scary to think that a person in pain all of a sudden is unable to get their needed medication.” 

Bockoff says the DEA and DOJ agents who visited his office last week left behind a list of emergency rooms in the Los Angeles area, saying they didn’t want any of his patients to go into withdrawal. Such a list would be of no use to out-of-state patients and of little use to those locally. Many patients resist going to emergency rooms because they fear their pain won’t be treated or they’ll be viewed as drug seekers. 

“I’m not sure that’s helpful to my patients,” Bockoff said.       

Legal experts say the DEA has the power to suspend a doctor’s license in “emergency” situations for “imminent danger to the public health or safety.” A doctor then has 30 days to appeal the suspension to an administrative law judge, a process that can take months or years to resolve – too long for patients who have a limited supply of medication. 

While the DEA has no authority to practice medicine or regulate it, the effects of its decisions are far-reaching on both doctors and patients.  

“They’re certainly making judgements on the practice of medicine and they’re not qualified to do so,” said Michael Barnes, an attorney and chair of the Center for U.S. Policy, a non-profit that seeks to improve healthcare and drug policy. “The DEA is a one trick pony. It knows how to raid. It doesn’t regulate and so it employs it’s war on drug tactics against prescribers, including those who have no criminal intent.” 

Ironically, the suspension of Bockoff’s license comes at a time when opioid hysteria appears to be receding, as more people become aware that street drugs are responsible for the vast majority of overdoses.

This month the CDC revised its controversial opioid guideline, giving doctors more flexibility in using their own judgement to prescribe opioids. In June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously in favor of two doctors appealing their convictions for “overprescribing” opioids, saying doctors can prescribe opioids outside the usual standard of medical care, as long as they act in good faith.

The California Medical Board is also modifying its hard stance on opioid prescribing, which resulted in hundreds of threats of disciplinary action against doctors who prescribed high doses or had patients who overdosed. 

None of these efforts, however, have reined in the DEA or prevented tragedies like the suicides of Danny and Gretchen Elliott.