As opioid deaths take center stage, it was just a matter of time before hearing a horror story about a reputable doctor caught up in a bureaucratic crackdown.
In this case, Ripley physician Dwalia South’s name was dragged into a Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics news conference and scandalized for writing opioid prescriptions. She was never charged with a crime.
This is the same Dwalia South who is past president of the Mississippi State Medical Association and is a member of the Mississippi Board of Health. In 2003, she was named Mississippi Family Physician of the Year and was listed as one of America’s Top Family Doctors of the Year in 2004-05.
Writing in the Catholic UNA VOCE newsletter, South explained the situation — and it was a far cry from that portrayed by the MBN.
Medical facilities often assign several nurse practitioners to work under physicians. Physicians review the work of the nurse practitioners and sign off. In this case, the nurse practitioner had let some of her certifications expire.
South got caught up in the mess through no fault of her own. When the federal Drug Enforcement Administration came calling, South naively answered all their questions without the advice of an attorney. The next thing she knew, her life was ripped apart.
South wrote, “It is the understatement of the year to say that I was mortified by this misguided public humiliation and maltreatment. Only then did we turn for legal representation to clarify things, but the public cannot unhear or unsee what has been so malignantly portrayed to them.
“Their vitriol was spewed out to the general public via television, radio and newspapers about the trophy witch hunt. A mug shot of our nurse practitioner was published, with a horrible photo of me immediately adjacent to it, giving the distinct but false impression to viewers I had been arrested for criminal activities.”
South had to surrender her DEA license for a year and resign as medical director of a hospice. Hundreds of patients suffered as a result.
What is missing here is judgment. The DEA and the MBN, under intense public pressure to take action against the opioid epidemic, rushed haphazardly to do something. South’s decades of service were not properly taken into account.
It is true that opioid deaths are a tragedy, but research indicates most fall under the categories of accidental overdose, intentional suicide, use of street opioids or young people who found the drugs in someone else’s home. Destroying established physicians over some bureaucratic signature goof-up may help DEA and MBN officials look pro-active, but it does little to resolve this crisis.
Instead of ruining the reputations of established physicians, a better approach would be public education to the dangers of opioids and revised physician guidelines on lower-risk pain management — both of which are well under way.
