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Justin Bailey, an Iraqi war veteran, who suffered from a drug addiction problem in an attempt to self-medicate, to displace from his mind the horrors of fighting overseas, was one of the far too many incidents of the Sepulveda VA Hospital negligence.
I spoke with Bailey's best friend, Dmitris Rentzis, who provided me with the KNBC footage about Justin's story, his preventable death, and his experience in dealing with the hospital subsequent to Justin's fatal overdose.
Some are comparing our own VA hospital with the atrocities at Walter Reed. It's hard not to see similarities after this interview...
How did this all come about?
Justin had come from Las Vegas, to Los Angeles, around Thanksgiving. He had decided to do his rehab, because he had spent a lot of time doing drugs since he'd come from Iraq. He wanted to get clean, to get his life together, is what he told me.
We went to a couple of places but ended up at the VA Hospital because it was free and they seemed to have a good rehab program. He checked in on November 28. He spent only two weeks in evaluation when he was supposedly going to spend 30 days in evaluation and I never understood why his time there was so short. The moment he got out of evaluation, he told me they had put him on methadone.
That got me worried and I called his doctor and his social worker and told him that Justin had overdosed in the past, two of the times were nearly fatal. I told him that he should not have been unsupervised with medications like methadone, that in fact, he should have been supervised with all of his medications, especially Xanax, because he would take too much of it. There were records of him improperly self-medicating, in his medical records, all they would have to do is take a look at them. I was ignored.
Justin had a non-fatal overdose on December 15. They called me from the emergency room at USC and I immediately called the social worker again and I begged her to notify his doctor because that was a clear sign of his problem self-medicating, it was a wake up call. Because next time he could overdose and that could be it, the end. He needed to be supervised.
What happened next?
Well, I thought everything was under control until two weeks before he died, he was really high on methadone when we went to see a movie. He told me that and I asked permission to speak to his doctors and Justin was going to sign a release form for me. We didn't get around to the release form because two weeks later, when I went to pick him up to see another movie, he was dead on his bed. They found him dead on his bed from an accidental overdose.
What really shocks me the most was he was the fifth death that had to take place before the administration changed the way they administered the meds. Five people had to die. In the same rehab facility. And there was a sixth person right after Justin. 
A few months after he died, I called his social worker, the one I'd warned three times, to tell her my pain and my sorrow and the difference she would have made if she had listened and made a couple of phone calls. Saved his family grief, me grief. She hung up the phone on me.
Really?
Yeah. When I called again, I immediately redialed, her supervisor said that my telephone calls were redundant and tedious, and they have nothing to do with their department and any further communication should addressed to the Dean of Staff.
I said that I had not warned the Dean of Staff about Justin, his social worker was in charge of his case and I warned her and talked to her personally. This was why I had called her. They hung up on me again.
Had Justin been in other rehab facilities before?
Yeah, but he had always checked himself out two or three weeks before rehab would end. He had been hospitalized for non-fatal overdoses or from having withdrawal symptoms, running out of his medications then have withdrawal symptom as a result, many times before he'd checked into the VA Hospital.
They knew all that and still they let him self-medicate, totally unsupervised. Which was ludicrous.
None of his drug usage or overdosing happened while he was in the military?
All of this happened when he came back from Iraq. He had gotten into drugs and drinking to forget, he was unable to deal with the things he'd experienced in Iraq. The killing of innocent people was something that weighed heavily on him. He had a lot of regrets about what they did.
Had he been officially diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder?
Yes. And the social worker that I notified, she is the specialist in charge of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder patients.
I found out that Justin's mom was making efforts to make sure he wasn't allowed to self-medicate, to alert his doctors and nurses. Also, the other patients were voicing their concerns. The six weeks he was in rehab, the other patients would see him falling asleep and being incoherent, falling down. They would notify the staff and nobody would do anything.
They would take him to his bed and leave him there. I count about 17 warnings that they received between me, his mother, and his fellow patients, there were about 17 warnings, if not more. They ignored all of them.
Photo provided by Dmitris Rentzis
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I'm writing to you about the methadone epidemic taking place in the United States .
I am writing on behalf of HARMD (Helping America Reduce Methadone Deaths). We are the families of victims and those yet to be victims of methadone. www.HARMD.org I have come together with many other families throughout the United States who have lost loved ones to methadone.
On June 24th 2006 I lost my fiancé (Ron) to methadone prescribed by a physician with a combination of other medications that acted as additives to the Methadone. He had knee surgery and became addicted to the percocet he was prescribed. He checked hi mself into Greenleaf in Valdosta , GA (part of South Georgia Medical Center ) for detoxification. Upon entering the facility he was drug tested and did not come up positive for opiates or any other drugs (he had stopped taking the percocet 4 days before entering the facility). He was prescribed by a Dr. excessive amounts of methadone (for a person without a known tolerence) with valium and Klonopin. On the fourth day in detox he died sometime between 2am and 1pm in the afternoon (he was never checked on in all of those hours). When hi s body was found at 1pm he was already in rigor mortis. He was extremely neglected bordering abusive considering he was supposed to be monitored every 1/2 hour according to hi s medical charts. The night before he died he was complaining of migraines and vomiting, apparently the staff thought he was still experiencing withdrawals (but again he had NO drugs in hi s system upon entering the facility) and was not concerned about these symptoms. The symptoms of methadone toxicity mimic withdrawal symptoms; physicians and staff must be very cognizant of the complex properties and metabolization of methadone. There were many errors made in my fiancé's death including the fact that he was given numerous amounts of additive medications such as benzodiazepines (valium and klonapin). He had only been taking percocet for about 4 months and according to the DSM IV he wouldn't be an appropriate candidate methadone maintenance treatment.
We are asking government agencies to enact stricter guidelines in prescribing methadone for any reason. It must be mandatory that all doctors be certified and trained in the pharmacology of methadone; inpatient stays must be required during induction to methadone; all staff be extensively trained in monitoring methadone patients for symptoms of toxicity. Clinic patients should be tested for legal and illegal drugs that are taken with methadone to get “high” or experience “euphoria” such as benzodiazepines, alcohol, cocaine, heroin, marijuana etc… and face severe consequences / mandatory detoxification from methadone program. When presenting inebriated at clinic, clinic should also document such activity as well as prevent client from driving. Take home doses for all patients receiving methadone should be eliminated thus preventing the risk of diversion or precautions such as pill safe should be implemented.
Current statistics show that nearly 4000 people a year die from methadone. These deaths are mostly happening to pain management and detoxification patients within the first 10 days of taking initial dose. Most of these deaths are related to methadone prescribed with other medications that react as additives with the methadone. Diversion of methadone is a serious problem because it lands this most deadly drug on streets. Statistics also state that methadone is contributing to more deaths nationwide then heroine and only second to cocaine deaths.
The government did take notice after the 2003 record number of deaths associated with methadone and the Bush administration responded by gathering the top experts on drug overdoses, doctors, researchers, and medical examiners, as well as representatives from the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, Food and Drug Administration, and Substance Abuse and Mental Health Association. Finn and Tuckwiller (2006) report that “the man hired to research and write the report based on the conference, as well as background paper for conference participants, was Stewart B. Leavitt, and addiction specialist whose work is funded by the makers of methadone”. Stewart B. Leavitt PhD served as researcher/writer for A National Assessment of Methadone-Associated Mortality: Background Briefing Report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Stewart B Leavitt also writes Addiction Treatment Forum Methadone Dosing & Safety in the Treatment of Opioid Addiction which is funded by Mallinckrodt, Inc. a manufacturer of methadone. My question is why hasn't a team of independent researchers not funded by pharmaceutical companies; a person or group of people that stand to gain no financial benefit on the outcome of the studies been hired to conduct the research? Finn and Tuckwiller (2006) report that “the man hired to research and write the report based on the conference, as well as background paper for conference participants, was Stewart B. Leavitt, and addiction specialist whose work is funded by the makers of methadone”. Stewart B. Leavitt PhD served as researcher/writer for A National Assessment of Methadone-Associated Mortality: Background Briefing Report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Stewart B Leavitt also writes Addiction Treatment Forum Methadone Dosing & Safety in the Treatment of Opioid Addiction which is funded by Mallinckrodt, Inc. a manufacturer of methadone. On the forum associated with his website several of the clinic participants speak of diverting, misusing, stockpiling, selling, and potentiating methadone and other prescription drugs.
This methadone epidemic and deaths associated with it are not going away. It's only getting worse; I get contacted by families on a daily basis who have lost someone to this drug. At what point do we value human life over the convenience of others? Methadone patients, whether they are pain or clinic pose a risk to themselves and society as a whole if they are not monitored, dosed, and assessed correctly. Clinic patients getting into cars after being dosed who are using benzodiazepines, alcohol, marijuana or other opiates are killing innocent people on the road. This type of harm reduction is not saving lives it’s taking them. The government cannot continue to be a legal drug dealer in order for its citizens to “behave”.
I know the rules are in place for the clinics but they are NOT being followed. Patients sell take homes outside the clinics. In one news article a man died in the parking lot of a clinic after taking his brothers take home. This drug is too dangerous to be allowed in medicine cabinets! There is A LOT of money to be made from methadone but what expense is that money being made at? When do the risks outweigh the benefits of this drug? How many more people must die before changes are made that actually save lives?
I have called several methadone clinics and have found out that many do not test for marijuana and are not open 7 days a week. These two things are of special concern to my organization because all methadone patients will receive a take home bottle of methadone on Saturday for Sunday (the day they are closed) whether they are new to the program or have been abusing other drugs. Marijuana and methadone have an effect on the user very similar to heroin. Many clinics do not test for marijuana because it is not believed to be a drug of choice or a "hard drug", I beg to differ because of the effect when combining the two have the potential to be more dangerous then the user/staff is aware. This poses a serious public health risk to those on the road innocently driving to work or school.
The state of Delaware has just added Methadone to the list of medications covered under the Medicaid program that require prior authorization for pain treatment. The potential of abuse, diversion, and overdose to new patients being prescribed methadone is overwhelming. The unique properties of methadone, it's long half life, and it's negative interaction with numerous drugs make it an optimal choice as a last result treatment for chronic pain.
Thank you for taking the time to read this letter.
Sincerely
Melissa Zuppardi
I knew Justin before, during, and after his military term. He has always had a major drug and alcohol problem. Before he left for Iraq, he was on meth and on ecstacy every weekend. He was able to dodge the military drug testing every time, he was a pro at that. The war did mess him up, but he was already messed up way before that. He always self medicated himself with whatever he could get his hands on. He told me he would lie to the VA medical doctors about his injuries so they would give him more drugs. He told me that he didn't really have pain. I'm sorry that this happened to Justin, but it is no one elses fault except for his own. He killed himself.
what sort of "friend" says something like that and doesnt have the guts to put his name after it?
i call bs on that last comment.
I am sorry to hear about what had happened to Justin Bailey. I don't know him, but I don know what it is like to go through red tape from VA facilities. I don't know if the doctors or the staff just don't care or if they are incompetent. Some I believe do care, but don't have the clout to make sure the right thing is done. I have recently got with the Veterans Service Commission to get some help, but it seems that they don't know what they are doing. Especially the receptionist. I hope and pray that anyone who joins the military, takes a look at what is going on with our Vets. They are not being taken care of, and more often than not in my personal experience, are getting substandard care. What happened to Justin Bailey is a result of the VA giving out that substandard care.