I accept all insurance, he told her. Federal prosecutors who charged him in a massive opioid bust say he overprescribed painkillers, often for money, notoriety, and sexual favors.. Brown hair, green eyes, amazing body. He smells them again. Young was indicted on drug-trafficking charges in April 2019. 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. Khazan: I was wondering if your ex-husband still supports Jeff or thinks he was a good medical provider. Trial dates have been set for "Rock Doc" Jeffery Young, his supervising physicians, and two more medical professionals recently indicted on additional drug trafficking charges. This is The Experiment, a show about our unfinished country. I cant wait to start being your patient again, one woman wrote. Its joined at points by a line of harmony played on a synthesizer.). The Experiment is a co-production of The Atlantic and WNYC Studios. Jeff gets his nick name "Rock Doc" from his loyal patients. I am a, uh, nurse practitioner. A former employee said that staffers had to go to Youngs houseanother McMansionto drag him out of bed, and that he would occasionally arrive at the clinic drunk. Additional audio from Purdue Pharma, The Rock Doc TV Show, @JY2RocDoc, and Bat Pig Pictures. Jeff didnt monitor M.Y.s use, or talk to him about the danger of combining drugs. Khazan: Christi Calles was the patient who loved listening to Stairway to Heaven.. In confessional-style interviews, Young seems to enjoy offending anyone whos shocked by his approach. Ballard: I dont believe Jeff overprescribed medication. Lax regulations played a role. Nearly a fifth of the citys residents live below the poverty line, and many are afflicted with chronic diseases that often accompany the stresses of a low income. (Somber, reflective droning notes play up. In 2020, had he not been indicted, he would have been allowed to petition to have his prescribing privileges reinstated, as long as he agreed to extra monitoring. As so often happens with irresponsible medical providers, Youngs popularity in the communityalong with an indifferent, slow-moving bureaucracyallowed him to operate for half a decade despite initial warning signs and then multiple arrests and investigations. RockDocTV Show. ), (The intro to a rock song plays, with a driving, pulsing beat. Wear a short skirt and no panties.. He decked out PreventaGenix with psychedelic artwork and set the stereo to loud rock. The cameraman who shot the pilot, who requested anonymity because he doesnt want to be associated with Youngs case, heard about Young through a mutual friend and visited him several times to shoot footage for what he hoped could become a reality show. And hed stream from inside the clinic sometimes. Watching this makes me really sad, one YouTube user commented on the Rock Doc pilot in 2019. Khazan: Anyone online could watch him, say, biopsy someones skin while listening to hard rock. However, many of Youngs online supporters have remained loyal. Purdue ad doctor: These drugswhich, I repeat, are our best, strongest pain medicationsshould be used much more than they are for patients in pain. The story of how that doctor-patient communication broke downhundreds of thousands of timesis what Olga wanted to understand. Julia Longoria: Over 20 years ago, pharmaceutical companies began to market the use of a magical pill. Khazan: In 2016, Jeff tried to broadcast his world even more widely. a dangerous combination of an opioid, a benzodiazepine, and a muscle relaxant. I mean, you wouldve thought they were giving away meds for free, to be honest. The lack of oversight in the Young case is in keeping with practices seen throughout the opioid crisis. I had a brother that passed away, and when he passed away, his friends played that for him at his funeral. Calles: I just wasnt getting the care I needed. Federal prosecutors say his help often amounted to dealing drugs for sex. You may not like my rock and roll. This is Aalto. I tried to reach out to women who Jeff was rumored to have exchanged drugs for sex with, but none of them wanted to talk on the record. Sometimes patients seeking opioids go to different providers until they find one who is willing to prescribe to them. Instead, Young began by kicking Reitz out of the business, Reitz told me. Listen to the trailer for Holy Week. You may not like me. Its gonna be a little cold, all right? The next morning, the office manager, Kristie Gutgsell, would clean up after them. I dont. 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. He has pleaded not guilty to all the charges against him. Khazan: Online, Jeff would get drunk and smoke cigars. At least 50 women are thought to have come to the clinic to have sex with Young, some of them allegedly doing so in exchange for drugs, according to court testimony. (A shudder, a gasp, then clapping and bubbling evolve into a background track.). I cant say for sure what the right course of treatment for LaRhonda was, and where opioids fit into that. 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. Young failed to diagnose the mans hypertension and overprescribed to him, according to court testimony, and later the patient suffered a stroke. Thank you for taking care of me, not just the sex and satisfaction but the Soma too, wrote one patient, referring to a muscle relaxer. (Young has pleaded not guilty to all charges. She once saw someone running across her yard into the woods. Not that half of the, you know powers that be are on some sort of whatever. He tried to ignore it, but when he woke up the next morning, LeAnn noticed he still looked really bad. I dont like him asking out my daughter But even then, I still went to him, and my ex-husband still went to him. 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. Khazan: Jeff had been good to Tanya in the clinic, which was an experience that she didnt usually have with doctors. They just, like, keep their distance from you. They liked his plainspoken approach to medicine, a profession typically associated with jargon and elitism. I didnt know that. When one patient told Young over Facebook Messenger that she was in shitty health and about to jump off a bridge, he prescribed her a cocktail of several different drugs, including fentanyl. Khazan: I talked to many of Jeffs patients. JACKSON, Tenn. The end is nowhere close for three medical professionals charged in a federal opioid crackdown earlier this year. Patel left soon after. Jeff refilled M.Y.s prescriptions for Percocet and Valium and gave him a new one for hydrocodone. But the allegations against him point toward what can be permissible, even celebrated, in a medical system built on profit. Khazan: And Christi also told me a very similar thing as the other patients I talked to: Shes had terrible experiences with other doctors. He may have that, but hes not Hes down to earth. Jackson, a city of about 70,000 people, looks like almost any midsize patch of America that sprang up sometime after the Pilgrims but before Microsoft. Young benefited from an almost reflexive societal trust in the medical profession. They dont want to touch you unless they have to touch you. Over that time, his online following grew. Young grabs them and takes a big whiff. Know his wife, age, net worth, family, He was found in his bedroom, where the ambulance service discovered an empty syringe under his pillow and empty pill bottles on his bedside table that had been filled that month. A staffer, who declined to talk on the record, asked me why I was writing about him. Music by Tasty Morsels and Nelson Nance. 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. Khazan: Does that change how you feel about him? His lawyer also declined to answer any specific allegations. Though Young at first just seemed to go along with the project, he grew more invested after the first visit, the cameraman told me. Theyre standoffish towards you. Khazan: Jeff was working as a nurse practitioner at a clinic called Preventagenix in Jackson, Tennessee. Throughout Youngs year-long treatment of MY, Young failed to conduct pill counts, consult a state database meant to monitor the dispensing of controlled substances, and discuss with MY the risks of combining these drugs, according to the document. But maybe, just maybe, he showed too much. Khazan: The videos were sarcastic and loose, intimate in their own bizarre way. Theres actually a diagnosis called white-coat hypertension. Its when your blood pressure spikes in a doctors office because the whole experience is nerve-racking. Fact-check by Michelle Ciarrocca and Jack Segelstein. At this point, the people of Jackson knew the full extent of officials suspicions about Young. 2,760 Followers, 1,655 Following, 2,046 Posts - See Instagram photos and videos from Jeff Young II (JY2) #RockDoc (@jeffyoungii) It really meant a lot to me. Otherwise, fledgling practices, in particular, risk losing patients. Scott Deberry: But after a while, when you read stuff, how many people could be wrong? Young had also allegedly begun siphoning off $100 almost every day from the clinic for his personal expenses, according to former employees. Jackson Sun. ), Jeff Young: Are we live? I mean, you could just kind of tell you could trust him. Updated at 10:28 p.m. The resulting videos are typical scenes from a medical practicepeople donning gloves, waiting in chairsspliced together over a heavy-metal soundtrack. Even after this, she returned to Young as a patient. FNP Jeff Young Jr. shares his life with his fans and promotes a healthy and fun lifestyle to make you "young" at heart! It wasnt like any medical office Id ever been to. No one else seemed capable of treating all her problemsthroat swelling, high blood pressure, attention issues. She said, He latches on to young single mothers, and he rushes in and wants toquote-unquotesave them.. He graduated from Musicians Institute in 1985, and is best known for his time with the thrash metal band Megadeth, appearing on the 1988 album So Far, So Good. He remarried in 2006. After the raid, Young spent the night in jail on an outstanding warrant, and PreventaGenix closed soon after. Like many actual rock stars, he flamed out on his own extravagant lifestyle. In an email to The Atlantic, Working said that when it came to Phillipss actions, there was no direct threat. All rights reserved. Jeffrey Young was one of those people. Were taking next week off to work on new stories, but well be back with new episodes starting April 15. Right? So, uh, here we are, sitting by the pool. And that was not the case at all. Dont worry, my tattoos dont like you either, one image reads. We cant live if hes out, she said. This is just gonna be a little freeze spray first. 1986-present. Thats okay. (Fades under.). Hed wandered off into the woods. In September 2014, Young, Reitz, and Patel opened their first clinic and called it PreventaGenix. Why would you go to this doctor? A transcript of this episode is presented below: (Abruptly, rock music begins to play, and then, just as quickly, it ends with a light echo.). Nurse practitioner Jeff Young, known as the "Rock Doc," and . In fact, he avoided doctors at all costs. Actually very nice, yeah. Copyright 2021 The Atlantic and New York Public Radio. So you got to be a good judge of character. (Laughs heartily.). Kevin: Jeff and I are full of antics. He made them feel comfortable in a way that no other doctor did. Scott Deberry: I just didnt like all the bickering on social media and in that newspaper. It doesnt sound like much of a sella middle-aged man doling out medical advice in a city midway between Memphis and Nashville. She doesnt think Young was the one who drugged her, but she believes nevertheless that she was drugged. Why didnt anyone try to put a stop to this? I just had a lot of questions about how could this happen., Further reading: The Hard-Partying, Rock-Obsessed Nurse at the Center of a Massive Opioid Bust. He blasted heavy metal at his private practice and filled his Instagram feed with photos of himself smoking cigars. Naylor: And I remember him saying, Bring him to the office. The whole thing was Very Online. Fact-check by Michelle Ciarrocca and Jack Segelstein. The scenes are meant to serve as a testament to the effectiveness of Youngs work hard, play harder ethos. Calles: I mean, you have killersmurderers, I meanthat have not been in jail this long. Young was indicted on drug-trafficking charges in April 2019. So what? After he opened the new clinic, Youngs sexual behavior with patients allegedly continued, as did the towns willingness to ignore it. (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 it fades out.). Young seemed to have been expecting them. 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 . He pleaded not guilty to the charges, and is currently in jail awaiting trial. They would shut off the power so they had an excuse to close the clinic on those days. Calles: And I mean, he didnt dress like your average doctor. A restaurant called the Little Rebel displayed a Confederate flag. The manufacturers and distributors of prescription opioids have been sued by dozens of states and municipalities for the damage theyve allegedly caused. Whether or not Young is convicted, the perverse incentives for doctors to see patients for short visits and to prescribe too many unnecessary drugs will remain. In recent years, the Justice Department has started coming for unscrupulous doctors and pharmacists, too. You need to be a certain kind of person to want a reality-TV show about yourself. We put out calls and emails to dozens of Jeff Youngs patients. And he said, You be sure and tell them that Jeff is the best doctor Ive ever seen. He said, Promise me you will tell them that. I said, I promise I will. I said, I will tell them that., (The music plays up for a long moment, then fades out under the narration.). But they helped create the opioid crisis all the same. For the occasion of his detention hearing, Young wore a cerulean suit and a comb-over. When one video was apparently manipulated by one of his detractors and posted online, Young threatened whoever might have done it. It was a story her daughter told her about a time she got sick. Its hard to hear or believe that the only provider whod ever been kind to youwho made you comfortablehad been accused of abusing other patients. The cause of death, according to the letter, was a probable cardiac event due to polypharmacy, or the simultaneous use of multiple drugs.. Alperovichs lawyer declined to comment.). In August 2015, Young prescribed MY what the letter calls a dangerous combination of an opioid, a benzodiazepine, and a muscle relaxant. Not that theyre not cheating on their wives. He has pleaded not guilty to all the charges against him. Young: (Over hard-rock music.) Editing by Katherine Wells, Julia Longoria, and Denise Wills. A woman I spoke with who has worked for seven doctors offices in the area estimates that about three-quarters of medical visits there result in an opioid prescription. In 2012, Young was working at a cardiology practice in Jackson when, with a consultant named Rich Reitz and cardiologist named Dharmesh Patel, he set up a side business giving talks to doctors about treating heart attacks and strokes. Khazan: When Jeffs indictment became public, LeAnnlike many of his former patientswas suspicious at first. Khazan: In one sense, I understand some of Jeffs patients defensiveness toward him. The clinics aim would be to halt the parade of miseriesheart attacks, early deaths, hospital billsbrought on by the obesity epidemic. (Young has denied that hed had sex with the patient who appeared to be drugged.). Ballard: Most doctors dont wanna touch you, and they only wanna address one issue at a time. Patients, meanwhile, dont always know that medical boards exist in the first place, or that they can complain to them if theyve been wronged, Lisa Robin, the chief advocacy officer for the Federation of State Medical Boards, says. Thats the only way you can describe it. Through his attorney, he declined to comment on this and the other allegations in this story because of a gag order issued by the judge in the case.). After the hearing, Young was jailed pending his trial, which is currently scheduled to be held this spring. I had had back surgery, and I really had real problems that no one wanted to listen to me about. Theres clear evidence that opioid manufacturers knew the drugs were addictive, yet they marketed them aggressively anyway. She became his patient around 2016. He invited a cameraman to document his life and eventually had it edited into a pilot for a reality-TV show. Why didnt anyone try to put a stop to this? I just had a lot of questions about how could this happen, you know? Young wanted information about one of his enemies. Several people suggested suing for defamation a news station that reported on the incident. Khazan: Her husband had severe dehydration and was suffering from a heat stroke. Yet he still attracted patients at GeneXis prior to his detention hearing in May 2019. [Chuckles.] But it played [Emphasizing.] Youngs story raises the question of where care crosses into harm. As Young collected more tattoos and befriended more local bands, he began to attract a certain clientele. She doesnt believe the allegations against him, and chalks them up to pure jealousy. All of his patients I saw when I would come would be all white. Whenever he ran into trouble, his fans would fill his social-media feeds with pledges of support. I mean, if somebody pats you on the back, that aint coming on to you. Some sought counseling, slept under their beds, or carried guns. (Youngs attorney claimed in court that only about 25 percent of his patients were.) Thank you for listening. Longoria: And one of those worst of the worst providers stood out from the others. 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.. You may not like my rock and roll, you may not like my piercings, you may not like my sexy-ass beard, but you know what? But that did not put a stop to Youngs ambitions. Sound design by David Herman. Christi Calles: His doctors office was just rocked out. Not that theyre not watching internet porn. In 2018, a woman told police that Young put his hands down her pants during an office visit, but that apparently led to nothing. Of course other doctors dont write as many prescriptions, the implication seemed to be. His vision was, evidently, to one day launch a reality series of the same name. 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