Daniel Maynard (physician)

Daniel Maynard is a South Dallas, Texas doctor of osteopathic medicine and a general practitioner since 1973 whose practice most recently specialized in pain-relief. His license was suspended in 2003 and was later initially indicted by a grand jury (on March 28 2005) for the deaths of two patients, Tammy Gifford and Janet Westmoreland.

He was later linked by Texas authorities to possibly as many as eleven deaths related to alleged overprescription of pain medications. The alleged victims ranged in age from 29 to 62, and their deaths occurred during the last three years, according to court records. Their autopsies listed various causes of death, including drug overdoses, toxic effects of mixed drugs and congestive heart failure.

Dallas District Attorney Bill Hill said his office and five other local and federal agencies began investigating Dr. Maynard after complaints by family members of patients who died from drug overdoses. He was released on bond on December 15 2004 following a new round of criminal charges. Texas state record show OxyContin, methadone, hydrocodone and other pain killers were prescribed in high volume through Maynard's clinic. Civil suits allege patients died as a result.

At the time of Janet Westmoreland's death, investigators found at least eight prescriptions in her home. Westmoreland's relatives did not comment, but an attorney suing Dr. Maynard for the family and almost two dozen other patients or relatives of Dr. Maynard's patients welcomed the indictments. "It's one step in a long journey to obtain justice for my clients", said lawyer Kay Van Wey. "Mr. Maynard placed profits, his own profits, over the lives and health of his patients. ... [h] e demonstrated a complete indifference to his patients' lives and well-being."

Dallas news reports showed that for 2002, Dr. Maynard led the state in prescriptions for the sedative diazepam and logged the second-highest number of prescriptions for hydrocodone. In that year alone, he wrote 54,748 prescriptions. After receiving prescriptions, patients typically lined up outside an adjacent storefront pharmacy, which was later raided by authorities. Dr. Maynard does not own the pharmacy but does own the building and the lot, officials and records say. That business was the largest dispenser of 10-milligram diazepam in the state's Medicaid program for low-income Texans in 2002.

Tracie Bond

Mary Johnson, whose daughter, Tracie Bond, overdosed from medications prescribed by Dr. Maynard, welcomed the criminal charges, stating "He [Daniel Maynard] did wrong and my daughter suffered because of it ... [a] few years in the penitentiary wouldn't hurt him ... [h] e was handing out pills like it was candy." Ms. Bond, a mother of three who was on medication prescribed by Dr. Maynard before she was paralyzed after having a one-car accident, was found dead in her bedroom in 2002, an empty morphine bottle beside her.

Employees' comments

The clinic did not make appointments. Patients were seen on a first-come, first-serve basis. A former employee said in records that some patients slept outside the clinic in order to be able to sign in first ... " [i] t was very scary because the people would become violent. Everyone wanted to sign in first, and most of them were high on drugs."

Dolores Burton

Chris Burton, whose late wife, Dolores, was one of Dr. Maynard's clinic patients said that the doctor "paid for off-duty police officers to keep patients from walking out of the nearby pharmacy and selling their prescription drugs to others ... [c] urrent and former employees echoed Mr. Burton's observations. They told investigators that off-duty officers provided protection and that the clinic saw up to 200 patients per day."

Mr. Burton supports Dr. Maynard's prosecution. "It'll save a lot of people's lives ... [i] t could have saved my wife's life."

Mr. Burton said his wife, Dolores Burton, began seeing Dr. Maynard in 1992 because of chronic back pain related to a 1989 on-the-job accident.

"A friend of hers had told her about him ... [s] he [the friend] told her he'd give her anything she wanted, whatever she asked for. And he did. He wouldn't so much as put a stethoscope to her."

Dr. Maynard had prescribed Mrs. Burton a number of medications, including the painkiller Percodan; Valium, an anti-anxiety drug; the antidepressant Trazodone; and the antidepressant Zoloft. The doctor prescribed the painkiller Hydrocodone for seven years then switched her to Percodan because of liver concerns, according to Mr. Burton.

"He kept supplying her the medicine every month ... [s] ometimes she wouldn't even have to go in. He'd just call it in." Dolores Burton suffered 27 strokes in the 18 months before her Jan. 3 death. "She just went downhill from stroke after stroke ... [s] he died at home in my arms after 22 years [of marriage] ".

upport for Dr. Maynard

Some patients expressed support for Dr. Maynard:

"I just get Valium for bad nerves", said Delicha Johnson, a patient who was briefly detained. "Dr. Maynard is a very good doctor. Why would police come up into a doctor's office like that?"

Cordell Cornell, another patient who was briefly held, said he sees Dr. Maynard because he has chronic back problems. "I just know he's a good doctor," he said.

Quotes by Daniel Maynard

* "I really care about the people I take care of ... I really work hard, and I really take care of sick people ... and how it comes to this, I don't know."

* "I'm being penalized for taking care of sick people," Maynard said. "It's the sick people that get the cancers; it's the sick people that die."

External links

* [http://www.cpmission.com/main/maynard.html History of case against Dr. Maynard]
* [http://www.wfaa.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/tv/stories/wfaa041214_am_maynardfolo.d199d01.html WFAA.com]
* [http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/city/dallas/stories/121104dnmetmaynard.4506e.html Dallas News reports]