Atlantic: Why did this doctor keep a gun in his desk?

[drusso]

A Puzzling Opioid-Linked Killing Points to a Dangerous Trend

"On that April evening last year, according to interviews in the report, Lang yelled and cussed at the addiction- and pain-treatment doctor, Edwin Zong, in his office, and leaped across a desk to punch him repeatedly. Hearing the doctor scream for help, the last patient waiting to see Zong that day ran to open the door. He told police he found Lang standing over Zong, curled in a fetal position on the floor, his face covered in blood and “the fear of a child in his eyes.”

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"Doctors who accept these patients, whether motivated by profit or compassion, can become overwhelmed, seeing far more than their offices can handle, opening the door to chaos and lawlessness. More problematic, some clinics, like Zong’s, offer a mix of services—treatment for both opiate addiction and pain. Patients being prescribed potentially dangerous narcotics are mixed in the waiting area with those struggling to kick addiction."


Bottom line: This kind of work must be adequately resourced and paid. It is labor intensive, resource intensive, high burn out work. It is also potentially life-threatening.

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[244913]

A Puzzling Opioid-Linked Killing Points to a Dangerous Trend

"On that April evening last year, according to interviews in the report, Lang yelled and cussed at the addiction- and pain-treatment doctor, Edwin Zong, in his office, and leaped across a desk to punch him repeatedly. Hearing the doctor scream for help, the last patient waiting to see Zong that day ran to open the door. He told police he found Lang standing over Zong, curled in a fetal position on the floor, his face covered in blood and “the fear of a child in his eyes.”

---

"Doctors who accept these patients, whether motivated by profit or compassion, can become overwhelmed, seeing far more than their offices can handle, opening the door to chaos and lawlessness. More problematic, some clinics, like Zong’s, offer a mix of services—treatment for both opiate addiction and pain. Patients being prescribed potentially dangerous narcotics are mixed in the waiting area with those struggling to kick addiction."


Bottom line: This kind of work must be adequately resourced and paid. It is labor intensive, resource intensive, high burn out work. It is also potentially life-threatening.

Looks like a store front pill mill. They spelled naturally wrong. I don't think someone can be an MD, DO and OMD at the same time but I could be wrong

You might as well put up a sign for addicts and abusers "come one come all" for cash treatment services. I would have kept a mortar in the office.

There is a yawning gap between that sort of "clinic" and a de-prescribing model like 101N advocates. And they will usually attract a different clientele

- ex 61N

 

[deleted480308]

And the gun in a desk is a bad idea. If it’s bad enough to need one it should be on you

 

[willabeast]

Let alone a gun, I was not allowed to keep a knife in my office. When i questioned that rule, I was told it sickened my physician rep to even think about allowing docs to have a knife in their offices. I can certainly see his point, but i bet he was not a member of the NRA either.
The best defense is a good offense - Wikipedia

 

[drusso]

There is a yawning gap between that sort of "clinic" and a de-prescribing model like 101N advocates. And they will usually attract a different clientele

- ex 61N

Really? You should read the online reviews...

 

[lobelsteve]

Hospital policy is no armed physicians. So if I do not carry and get killed, I cannot be fired. But if I kill with my conceal carry and do not die, I get fired.
I do keep kypho needles in every room and at my desk. Great T-handle.

 

[SeniorWrangler]

I'm a little surprised the police didn't take things further since the doctor shot someone who was facing away from them and not posing an immediate threat. Even if he'd been punching the doctor, that doesn't seem like a good reason to take a shot. Despite the sensationalist coverage, I'm not sure how the fact that the pain clinic was also prescribing Suboxone led to the violence. Most pain patients and most opioid addicts are not violent (except for committing petty crimes to pay for drugs).

 

[deleted480308]

I'm a little surprised the police didn't take things further since the doctor shot someone who was facing away from them and not posing an immediate threat. Even if he'd been punching the doctor, that doesn't seem like a good reason to take a shot. Despite the sensationalist coverage, I'm not sure how the fact that the pain clinic was also prescribing Suboxone led to the violence. Most pain patients and most opioid addicts are not violent (except for committing petty crimes to pay for drugs).

felony battery is a good reason to shoot someone as you have no reason to assume they will stop

 

[SeniorWrangler]

I'm just going by the brief vignette, but it sounds like he had stopped and had turned away from the doctor when the door opened. We'll never know what he would have done next -- maybe attacked the doctor again, maybe run away, maybe he would have turned around, seen the gun and surrendered. We'll never know.

 

[lobelsteve]

Zong had a reputation for writing scripts cheap and fast, according to numerous interviews with former patients, drug-treatment professionals, and pharmacy employees in the area. Lines of sometimes agitated patients stretched from the waiting room into the parking lot, the street, and the dirt lot across the road, patients and neighbors say.

If the wait was lengthy, the appointments weren’t, the patients say.

“When I walked in the first time,” says Brian Adams, a former patient, “[Zong] said, ‘What’s going on?’ I said, ‘I’m a heroin addict. I need help.’ He said, ‘Okay, I’ll write you a prescription for Suboxone.’”

No intake. No drug testing. No counseling. “I was in and out in five minutes,” Adams says.

The price for the visits ranged from $80 to $100 cash to secure the medicine, patients say—far cheaper than anywhere nearby.

Clear drug dealer with gun in his desk. Doc needs jail. And sign says MD/DO. WTF?

 

[244913]

Really? You should read the online reviews...

See Steve's post above. Dude was a drug dealer.

 

[emd123]

Let alone a gun, I was not allowed to keep a knife in my office. When i questioned that rule, I was told it sickened my physician rep to even think about allowing docs to have a knife in their offices. I can certainly see his point, but i bet he was not a member of the NRA either.
The best defense is a good offense - Wikipedia

Physicians are allow to wield a scalpel, open someone's chest, decide whether or not patient gets a life saving breathing tube put in, have access to medicines that are simultaneously life saving and fatal, and make all kinds of life and death decisions. Yet if it involves carrying a gun for self protection in the workplace, suddenly it's 'too dangerous' to trust a doctor with something that any ice-cream truck owner that takes an 8 hour class is allowed to do on the job without being questioned.

 

[Ducttape]

All the examples you give are how a doctor can save a life... except the gun. The gun is a tool to take away a life and the doctor needs to have the same level of training and expertise as your truck driver.

If you are railing against hospital policy.... Hospitals are not places where one goes to be shot (by guns), accidentally or not.

 

[deleted480308]

All the examples you give are how a doctor can save a life... except the gun. The gun is a tool to take away a life and the doctor needs to have the same level of training and expertise as your truck driver.

If you are railing against hospital policy.... Hospitals are not places where one goes to be shot (by guns), accidentally or not.

and yet, occasionally someone in a hospital actually needs to be shot, which is a bad time to not have a gun

 

[Ducttape]

There you go again, postulating absolutes. It’s a poor argument. The “good guy with a gun” argument is an NRA fallacy.

And, Anyone who “needs” to be hunted down like a rabid animal, shot and killed should be targeted by trained professionals ie policemen, not Joe Schmo.

 

[deleted480308]

There you go again, postulating absolutes. It’s a poor argument. The “good guy with a gun” argument is an NRA fallacy.

And, Anyone who “needs” to be hunted down like a rabid animal, shot and killed should be targeted by trained professionals ie policemen, not Joe Schmo.

Unless of course that bad guy happens to be actively trying to kill me or my family at the moment in which case I’m under no moral obligation to wait for police to arrive

I’m not referencing a 9 state fugitive search, this is protection of innocent lives that could be ended prior to police arriving

 

[Doctodd]

Zong had a reputation for writing scripts cheap and fast, according to numerous interviews with former patients, drug-treatment professionals, and pharmacy employees in the area. Lines of sometimes agitated patients stretched from the waiting room into the parking lot, the street, and the dirt lot across the road, patients and neighbors say.

If the wait was lengthy, the appointments weren’t, the patients say.

“When I walked in the first time,” says Brian Adams, a former patient, “[Zong] said, ‘What’s going on?’ I said, ‘I’m a heroin addict. I need help.’ He said, ‘Okay, I’ll write you a prescription for Suboxone.’”

No intake. No drug testing. No counseling. “I was in and out in five minutes,” Adams says.

The price for the visits ranged from $80 to $100 cash to secure the medicine, patients say—far cheaper than anywhere nearby.

Clear drug dealer with gun in his desk. Doc needs jail. And sign says MD/DO. WTF?

wtf .....all hearsay("reputation", "patient says", etc).....you have evidence of any of it? You arent helping by propagating hearsay. This isnt court, and you arent the DA.

On a lighter note, thx for the idea of what to do with my demo BMAC needles.

 

[lobelsteve]

wtf .....all hearsay("reputation", "patient says", etc).....you have evidence of any of it? You arent helping by propagating hearsay. This isnt court, and you arent the DA.

On a lighter note, thx for the idea of what to do with my demo BMAC needles.

I only wrote the last paragraph. The rest was quoted from the paper.

 

[KrisG1982]

crazy things happen everywhere.. home, store, hospital, bank.. Two pain doctors were found dead in their luxury Boston condo 2017..sad.. just hope it will never happen to me or my family. zong probably couldn’t help everyone, but he provided affordable care for many people for many years. He had helped me during my recovery. I hope that he will return to his clinic at some point.
If he takes cash, security guards will be a good idea for his clinic.

 

[Ligament]

Unless of course that bad guy happens to be actively trying to kill me or my family at the moment in which case I’m under no moral obligation to wait for police to arrive

Of course you are under a moral obligation to wait and cry in a corner like a child while Mr. Policeman arrives 30 minutes later. 30 minutes is not very long. Just ask the bad man to take a smoke break or something and not harm you or your family until the police arrive.

Ducttape would rather you be murdered than protect yourself.

 

[Ducttape]

lig chooses to ignore the fact that I did not dispute sb247's last point. nice way to try to take things completely out of context.

of course sb247 should defend himself. but there are limits, like everything in life. after all, there just is no place in a typical doctors office to store an AR-15 with 2000 rounds of ammo.

you, on the other hand...

 

[lobelsteve]

lig chooses to ignore the fact that I did not dispute sb247's last point. nice way to try to take things completely out of context.

of course sb247 should defend himself. but there are limits, like everything in life. after all, there just is no place in a typical doctors office to store an AR-15 with 2000 rounds of ammo.

you, on the other hand...

Automatic Interior LED Lighting Now Included Steelwater Xtreme Duty – 2 Hr Fire – HD724228 | Steelwater Gun Safes
Holds 43 long guns and lots of ammo.

 

[Ducttape]

And you keep that where in your office?

 

[lobelsteve]

And you keep that where in your office?

Medical Associates of North Georgia

Lots of sq feet.

 

[Ducttape]

Good luck with running to your locked gun cabinet, doing the combo, pulling out your AR-15, putting in some ammo, then looking for the perp.


Or, just pull out your xd 45 and shoot away.

 

[lobelsteve]

Good luck with running to your locked gun cabinet, doing the combo, pulling out your AR-15, putting in some ammo, then looking for the perp.


Or, just pull out your xd 45 and shoot away.

I dont have any AR. And 45 too big for cc. .380 S&W bodyguard with safety. 1 in chamber.