Young: That was what Im going to say. He didnt mind saying a curse word or two.. Calles: I really am so thankful that he suggested that to me, because if he hadnt have, I probably wouldve never done it, because I wouldnt take anybody else seriously enough to even think about doing it. As the court spent two days scrutinizing his years of alleged misdeeds, he sat mostly silently. Always have been for the patient. At the same time, building himself up as a renegade nurse practitioner seems to have allowed Young to sweep his faults under the rug of unconventionality. Sound design by David Herman. In 2011, the couple got in a fight while visiting Panama City Beach, Florida, and it was determined that Young did throw, or shove, Mrs. Young from the bed to the floor, the police report reads. ), Khazan: So doctors were kind of like, Okay.. #coffeeplease #noontime #rockrageradio www.rockrageradio.com They just, like, keep their distance from you. The waiting room often overflowed with patients. But he, uh He was true to himself; lets say that. Minutes after finishing the second drink, Stephanie fell face-first onto the floor. Listen to the trailer for, The Hard-Partying, Rock-Obsessed Nurse at the Center of a Massive Opioid Bust. Hed wear Halloween masks and make off-color jokes. Purdue Pharma ad voice-over: Once youve found the right doctor and have told him or her about your pain, dont be afraid to take what they give you. Were small enough where we still talk, Jerry Gist, who was the mayor at the time, told me. Its light and upbeat.). PreventaGenix had a back door, and before long employees started noticing that some female patients would come in through it and go directly to Youngs office. Years before the launch of PreventaGenix, Young had already been accused of abusing his nurse-practitioner license. Look at me! But as I talked to more patients, they started saying things that really surprised me. The opioid epidemicwhich appears to only be getting worsehas made clear that wherever pain exists in America, grifters will follow. Yeah, thats prettythats very distressing. (A snare hit plays, and the music changes tone again. I mean, you wouldve thought they were giving away meds for free, to be honest. Hey! Pharmacists began to refuse to fill his prescriptions. Weeks after the indictment made national news, the clinic was packed with people coming and going, one woman who worked in a building with a view of the parking lot told me. Thats very distressing Yeah, Im shocked, you know? With a heavy Mercy me, Phillips produces a pair of womens panties from a bag. I mean, I worked at a bank for 15 years, and when youve worked at a bank and youve cashed checks, you have to judge people in two seconds. Unnamed guest: I cant believe he stabbed himself (Fades under.). Ballard: Most doctors dont wanna touch you, and they only wanna address one issue at a time. Tune in today! An obese man explains that Young helped him with his swollen leg. He has pleaded not guilty to all the charges against him. According to police reports and court records, his second ex-wife, Dawn, claimed that throughout their relationship Young repeatedly pushed, threatened, and attempted to rape her. To date, none of the alleged victims in Youngs court case has come forward publicly to speak against him. MY came to PreventaGenix complaining of lower-back pain and numbness in his left arm, and asked for refills of pain medications. Young: (Over hard-rock music.) Rock Doc TV. If a patient would text him a compliment, he would blast it all over Facebook, one former employee told me. (Four years later, the health department received a complaint about this testosterone sideline, but the complaint was never assigned to an investigator, according to Pickering.) Jackson nurse-practitioner Jeffrey Young, known as the "Rock Doc," was released on bond and will be allowed to continue treating patients, a federal judge ruled Thursday. (In response to a request for comment, a health-department spokesperson noted that, according to state law, the department cant suspend medical licenses without first giving practitioners the opportunity to demonstrate compliance regarding the allegations against them. Then and over the ensuing months, I spoke with dozens of Youngs friends, enemies, alleged victims, and former co-workers. Scott Deberry: And, you know, once you get around the tattoos and the way he talkscause he talks to you as if hes talking to you on the streets As long as he was going to take care of me and make me feel okay, or make me feel better, I had no problem with that. Listen and subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | Google Podcasts, The patients of the nurse practitioner and aspiring reality star Jeffrey Young say he helped them like nobody else could. The half-dozen former patients who did agree to talk with me were mostly people who wanted to defend Jeff. Know his wife, age, net worth, family, Additional music by Nelson Bandela (04 HIDDEN FORCES and Auddi Sun 01 131). Khazan: This is Tanya Ballard. In May 2019, shortly after Young was indicted, I traveled to Jackson to try to understand the place that gave rise to the Rock Doc. I have found accounts of at least 40 other medical providers in the country who have been accused of exchanging sex for addictive drugs. But the more time I spent thinking about it, the more I started to realize that Jeff has a point. Im like, Im as outspoken as he is. (The drugmaker that is most often blamed for the epidemic doesnt agree with this assessment: Suggesting that activities that last occurred more than 16 years ago are responsible for todays complex and multifaceted opioid crisis is deeply flawed, a Purdue Pharma spokesperson, Robert Josephson, said in a statement to The New York Times for a story on this issue.). They didnt play Stairway to Heaven or have Periscope accounts. When I visited the clinic shortly before the hearing, Young had just finished up with a patient. Khazan: I had a lot of Why on earth? questions: Why would he do this? It was just rocked out. Were tracing your fucking account now, so you better be prepared to reap the whirlwind of your bullshit., As he gathered followers, Young began to deploy his social-media presence to hunt down and intimidate his former employees and ex-friends, some of whom told me they felt threatened by Young and his followers. (The two clap each others backs in a half-hug.). Most doctor appointments, after all, average a nerve-racking 17 minutes, in which you spill out a complicated medical history and pray the doctor has a good solution. A year later, the Tennessee nursing board suspended his ability to prescribe most opioids and other controlled substances for two years, saying that he had prescribed them irresponsibly. (Topix has since been shut down.) Lots of people refused to talk to me because they fear Young, but many others refused because they love him. He even convinced her to get weight-loss surgery. Were taking next week off to work on new stories, but well be back with new episodes starting April 15. (Young has denied that hed had sex with the patient who appeared to be drugged.). Young: (Serious, and a little angry.) Then it fades out.). This is Aalto. What a great, great, great, great song! Eventually Shirley Pickering, the nursing-board investigator who was looking into the allegations against Young, also grew terrified of him. She once saw someone running across her yard into the woods. (One employee, Karla Wright, testified later that she had never seen Young have sex with women at the office. Doctors offices make money by billing insurance companies for the services the providers perform, but it was hard to do this at PreventaGenix because the documentation for Youngs visits was so shoddy. He never admitted to anything that would make him look bad. Have you ever been to a doctor and you just didnt feel comfortable? And you can kind of look at it like locker-room talk . I had had back surgery, and I really had real problems that no one wanted to listen to me about. One former employee told me its not clear whether Young was exchanging prescriptions for sex or just giving his many girlfriends the medications they asked for. (Stephanie asked me to use a pseudonym for her because she doesnt want her name associated with the case.) She told me that Jeff took her pain seriously. Our team also includes Gabrielle Berbey, Emily Botein, Matt Collette, Tracie Hunte, and me, Natalia Ramirez. Ill meet you there. Yet he still attracted patients at GeneXis prior to his detention hearing in May 2019. Oh, look, I got a new haircut today (Fades under.). So it was kind of significant to me. I asked to speak with him for this story, but because of a gag order on the case, his lawyer declined interviews with me. Christi Calles: His doctors office was just rocked out. In 2016, Young, who was 42 at the time, invited a cameraman to shoot a pilot episode about his life as a nurse practitioner in Jackson, Tennessee. So, uh, here we are, sitting by the pool. Theres clear evidence that opioid manufacturers knew the drugs were addictive, yet they marketed them aggressively anyway. I expected to hear lots of horror stories of abuse and mistreatment. (They relied on messages obtained by agents during the investigations into Young.) Even now, I cant say that. All of them said that they didnt think Jeff sexually abused them. You could see, almost, when you were talking to him, he was listeningand he was thumping that pen to the beat of the music. Like many actual rock stars, he flamed out on his own extravagant lifestyle. Yall partying in the office? [Chuckles.] Khazan: Do you remember what kind of music was playing? Without doing a physical exam, Young diagnosed MY with chronic lower-back pain and anxiety, the letter details. Young seemed to have been expecting them. Mellow and slow, it moves under the narration the way water moves through a stream.). Young began arriving at the clinic smelling rancid, with greasy hair, and the clinics money problems mounted. (Court records do not contain the names of Youngs alleged victims.) Rock Doc pilot testimonial: (Over heavy rock music.) Khazan: The videos were sarcastic and loose, intimate in their own bizarre way. Dont worry, my tattoos dont like you either, one image reads. You may not like me. In July 2016, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation began looking into allegations that Young was overprescribing opioids. Young grabs them and takes a big whiff. All of his patients I saw when I would come would be all white. He has pleaded not guilty to all the charges against him. She would wake up to find that all her car doors had been opened overnight. One employee recalled him sometimes being too drunk to see patients. As many as three women a day allegedly came to his office for sex, though one former employee said Young might have had sex with more women after hours. Jeffrey Young wanted to give you a real look inside his clinic. It wasnt like any medical office Id ever been to. They go on working. A new court filing, first reported by The Tennessean last week, portrays the Rock Doc as a menacing figure at the intersection of the opioid crisis and the #MeToo movement. [A moment of indistinct crosstalk.] At the beginning of the opioid epidemic, the autonomy of doctors to prescribe opioids was almost limitless, Keith Humphreys, a Stanford University professor who researches mental-health policy, says. Young did seem to be famous enough in Jackson, however, to reinforce his own grand vision of himself. Many people trust doctors even when theyre harmed by their treatment, and a 2008 study found that people are more likely to spend time researching a new employer or a new car than vetting a new surgeon. One of his patients, Helena Louvaris, told me that Young saved her life by putting her on a diet plan. He refilled MYs prescriptions for Percocet and Valium, and also prescribed him hydrocodone. Federal prosecutors who charged him in a massive opioid bust say he overprescribed painkillers, often for money, notoriety, and sexual favors.. And I said, And they say that youre trading sex for medication. He was like, You know, these motherfuckers lie all the damn time. [Chuckles.] Jeffery Dale Young known as Dr. Jeff Young or Dr. Jeff is American Veterinarian and a reality TV actor. #saturdays at noon est to hear #nikkidarling chat with the #RockDoc Jeff Young II #musicmeetmedicine Starts at 12pm est. Khazan: LeAnns story was similar to Tanyas and LaRhondas and Christis. Fullington, who was also let go, told me she got a threatening call from Young. Early in the epidemic, Purdue gave doctors OxyContin fishing hats and swing-music CDs to encourage them to prescribe more of the drug. So what, I dont go get fucked up at the country club with the rest of the stiffs here in J-Town? How was a nurse practitioner whose behavior was so outrageous allowed to treat patients for so long? Not that half of the, you know powers that be are on some sort of whatever. His case offers a unique look at the opioid crisis. 0:04. After PreventaGenix shut down, Young told his patients on Facebook that they could contact Reitz and Patels attorney to get their medical records. (Droning music, reflective and cool, plays.). Whats up kids? Khazan: LeAnn Naylor was the secretary for the mayor of Jackson when she started seeing Jeff as a patient. I talked to him a couple of weeks ago. Some of the pills had been prescribed by Young. It was a story her daughter told her about a time she got sick. There were reports of after-hours partiespossibly of Jeff having sex with his patients. They married in 2014 and lived right above his vet clinic in Denver. Once his colleagues were out of the business, Young began crafting a persona based around rock music and hard living. Moreover, throwing some glimpse of lights to his personal life, Dr. Jeff is a happily married man. It feels claustrophobic.). Many of the people I interviewedincluding some of Youngs former patients and employeesasked to remain anonymous, often because they feared retribution at the hands of Young and his friends. Another said, I was thinking of you today and how much you have helped me.. Other female patients checkout sheets simply said No charge., Though he portrayed himself as harmlessly vulgar, Young could, in fact, get violent with women. His indictment implicated him and two of his former supervising physicians, Alexander Alperovich and Andrew Rudin, and alleged that Youngs motives in prescribing controlled substances to his patients were often to obtain money, notoriety, and sexual favors. Alperovich and Rudin, the indictment claims, accepted money derived from the proceeds of the conspiracy in exchange for their purported supervision. (Both have pleaded not guilty. Scott Deberry: When I told him, I said, Every time I go to a doctor and tell them I feel like I have the flu, they look at me as if Im delusional.. Use the hashtag #TheExperimentPodcast, or write to us at theexperiment@theatlantic.com. Through his lawyer, Michael R. Working, Phillips did not return several requests for comment. The trial for "Rock Doc" Jeffrey Young, the infamous nurse practitioner from Jackson who was indicted in 2019 on drug trafficking charges and accused of . Khazan: The Rock Doc, Jeff Young, has been in jail for almost two years, awaiting trial. Young neither admits nor denies the following allegations, Tracy Alcock, a lawyer with the state health department, said at the hearing, but he acknowledges that the departments proof would show the following: From August 2013 to November 2016, Young prescribed controlled substances in amounts and for durations that were not medically necessary, advisable, or justified for a diagnosed condition. The board put his license on probation for two years, during which time he could not prescribe certain Schedule II or Schedule III controlled substances, including drugs such as oxycodone, fentanyl, Vicodin, and Adderall. He decked out PreventaGenix with psychedelic artwork and set the stereo to loud rock. This is The Experiment, a show about our unfinished country. Opioid manufacturers such as Endo, the maker of Opana, and Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin, targeted high-volume providers, in particular generalists, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants, who generally had less expertise in pain management and were more receptive to marketing from sales consultants, according to a lawsuit filed by the state of Tennessee against Endo in May 2019. Years active. Several people suggested suing for defamation a news station that reported on the incident. (She did not want to be named for fear of jeopardizing her business.) He found diseases, for example, that other doctors missed. We got a very, uh, important (Fades under.). Young would continue to prescribe drugs there for two more years. When one video was apparently manipulated by one of his detractors and posted online, Young threatened whoever might have done it. Purdue voice-over: Some patients may be afraid of taking opioids because theyre perceived as too strong or addictive but that is far from actual fact. I dont I dont even know what to say. He pleaded not guilty to the . Kevin: Jeff and I are full of antics. As the cameraman who filmed the pilot told me, Everywhere he went, it was like the Beatles., But the way in which Young gained some of these fans has become the focus of a federal court case. Stephanie would accompany him to different clubs in the area, and wherever he went, she said, he was surrounded by hired bodyguards and friends she called bouncers, who were around for the times when he drank too much or flirted with women and got into fights with their boyfriends. Listen to the trailer for. He exhibited a certain tenderness as he filled syringes and sutured skin. I didnt know that. They are often too under-resourced and understaffed to keep a watchful eye on all medical providers. The allegations against Young point toward an especially sordid type of abuse in which some doctors victimize patients twice: first by getting them addicted to drugs, and then by sexually exploiting them. Theres clear evidence that opioid manufacturers knew the drugs were addictive, yet they them. The country who have been accused of exchanging sex for addictive drugs theres evidence!, sitting by the rockdoc jeff young have found accounts of at least 40 other medical providers in the club! 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