2007: Licensed to Kill part 1

Speaker: Licensed to Kill part 1 with VO Imagine getting the news that you have cancer, and I'm not talking about just any cancer. I'm talking about stage 4 lung cancer. Stage 4 lung cancer is one of the most aggressive and deadly cancer diagnoses. It means that the cancer has spread to other organs, Such as the brain, bones, or liver. One of the first questions on your mind is, how long have I got? (https://www.cancer.org/cancer/types/lung-cancer/detection-diagnosis-staging/survival-rates.html?utm_source=chatgpt.com) Scott Warwick of Helena, Montana must have asked himself this question every single day. a study found that patients with stage 4 lung cancer who choose not to undergo any treatment. A study found that patients with stage 4 lung cancer who chose not to undergo any treatment had a much shorter life expectancy. Just about, just over 16 months on average. But for those who opted for radiation, chemotherapy, or targeted therapies, that number jumped to two years. But Scott Warwick refused to follow the script. but Scott Warwick refused to follow the typical script. But Scott Warwick refused to follow the script. Two years into his treatment, he was still going strong. reportedly running five miles per day. Then four years passed and he was still here. Against all odds, he hit his ten year mark battling stage four lung cancer. Against all odds, he hit his 10 year mark battling stage 4 lung cancer and undergoing relentless chemotherapy. Scott was still holding on strong. But eventually, on year 11, Scott Warwick's time was running out. On August 2, 2020, he was admitted into the ICU at St. Peter's Hospital in Helena, Montana. (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8724440/) Here's Dr. Randy Sasic. (sa-sick) Randy_Sasich: On this day, um, one of the hospitalists comes up to me and, and, uh, tells me about a 51, 52 year old man who had been diagnosed 11 years ago with metastatic lung cancer. He was, he came in for pulmonary infiltration hypoxemia. So. What this was, was a 51 year old man with a diagnosis of the most common form of lung cancer diagnosed at stage four, meaning This is a non curable diagnosis. 11 years ago, also at a young age, he was diagnosed. Who's still alive, is currently on a, on chemotherapy. Dr. Sasic, who oversaw St. Peter's Intensive Care Unit, first met Scott Warwick the day after he was admitted for shortness of breath. his lungs on the x ray were insulted. They were filling up with something. They were white when they should have been black. And his oxygen was low and he's struggling to breathe. Dr. Sasek concluded that this was the result of 11 years of cancer treatment and chemotherapy. Randy_Sasich: I said that, that doesn't make any sense. That's impossible. It's, it's not impossible.It's just really unlikely, like beyond unlikely. That somebody has lived 11 years with that diagnosis. Survival rates for stage four non small cell lung cancer beyond 10 years are exceptionally low. a study published in Frontier and Oncology Reported that patients who survived at least three months post diagnosis, the 10 year survival rate was approximately 5%. 5 percent is like getting struck by lightning twice in your lifetime. The more Dr. Sasick looked into Scott Warwick's medical history, the less answers he found. Randy_Sasich: and as I look back through the records, there wasn't a, a biopsy that was there for cancer. There wasn't. INTRONo biopsy. No signs of cancer. Yet, Scott Warwick received 11 years of chemotherapy and other treatments. A toxic cocktail that blazes through his body. Chemo doesn't just attack the cancer, by the way. It destroys everything in its path. Your immune system, your digestive tract, your quality of life. It's like setting fire to a field of weeds and hoping that the grass grows back. Some days, chemo feels like it's slowly killing you, and other days, it's the only thing keeping you alive. But Scott Warwick didn't have cancer, yet his oncologist, Dr. Thomas Weiner, ordered chemo for him anyway MUSICWhat if your doctor wasn't trying to save you, but trying to cash in on you? According to allegations, Dr. Thomas Weiner ordered brutal rounds of chemotherapy for patients in Montana who may not have even had cancer. Why? Well, some claim that financial incentives played a role. In today's episode, we dig into the accusations about the system that allows doctors to profit from unnecessary treatment. I'm Javier Leyva, and this is Pretend, stories about real people pretending to be someone else. Randy_Sasich: I'm a pulmonary critical care, specialist.I was, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm not going back to medicine in the U S um, I like medicine. I enjoy medicine. I think I'm good at it in my specialty. I, I eat it. After what I've seen and experienced even after this I turned your short question into a long answer. Today, we're telling the story of the case that broke Dr. Randy Sasick. He took a stand against Dr. Weiner, questioning what he believed to be medical fraud. But speaking out came at a cost. Almost immediately, Dr. Sasick felt the pressure, pushback from his colleagues, a growing sense of fear. The moment he started asking questions, everything changed.

Javier: Were there any, you know, lab reports or any evidence of cancer?

Speaker: Randy_Sasich: You don't treat cancer without a diagnosis of cancer, and that means the labs from pathology. Dr. Sasick searched and searched, but in the previous ten years, there was no biopsy. There was no biopsy proving that Scott Warwick had cancer so then why was dr. Weiner Scott's oncologist? treating him with years of aggressive chemotherapy? Dr. Sasic kept digging through the records, searching for answers. Then he asked Scott Warwick to explain when he first got the diagnosis. So what Scott Warwick had was, and he told me, he had a nodule kind of grow up, and he kind of pointed right here. Dr. Sasic points to the side of his neck. Randy_Sasich: None of this looked like cancer, but he had an ear, nose, and throat physician biopsy it. and that came back with atypical cells. Atypical cells in a nodule that grows up can be all sorts of stuff. Usually it means the outpacing their blood supply. And that's can be cancer, but it doesn't have to be cancer. Um, and in Scott's case, it wasn't cancer.

Javier: you have this Wild case that could be part of a medical anomaly book, right? Like 11 years with stage four cancer, something, your Spidey sense started going off. You don't have a biopsy,

Speaker: Randy_Sasich: need a Spidey Sense for this one. You don't. It's that I use the word egregious. It's that obvious that something horrible had happened here.

Javier: I mean, I'm not even a doctor. And that just sounds when I hear stage four, I hear a clock ticking.

Speaker: Randy_Sasich: Yes. Yeah, and in fact, I still remember Scott's PET scan. when I first looked at first morning, when he first told me about it, because that's what the first thing I did, I was looked through the pathology and looked at the imaging to see if this made any sense. And it didn't. cancers, a lot of cancers will light up, um, other things, infections, other things will light up. Scott had it all over in his nasopharynx, lighting up, very bright. And what Weiner would have had to, what Weiner was saying was this was all metastatic lung cancer. There was no obvious. tumor, there was a one nodule on his lung. Um, it just doesn't look like lung cancer. And if it were, this, this man had months or weeks to live.

Scott Didn't Believe Himjavier: And now you're kind of coming to this conclusion that something's terribly wrong. And I'm assuming that you're working with Scott and his wife and the family. And at any point, did you tell them about some of your concerns?

Speaker: Randy_Sasich: I'd had to give patients in an outpatient setting when I'd taken over a case, had to navigate the, I don't agree with your previous physician's diagnosis. I've, I've navigated that before. That's unpleasant. it's really unsettling to a patient, as you can imagine. Um, to go to an expert and have them say that, you know, that your new expert who you barely know says that their previous doctor they knew is, is, uh, is wrong. Now I knew I was going to have to do this to a man who was dying in an ICU with the diagnosis he's lived with for 11 years. It had taken his job. It had massively affected his family life, and it was all unnecessary.

Javier: You've lived 11 years of your life thinking that you're dying.

Speaker: And now somebody's telling me that, well, you might be dying, but it's not because of the cancer. Randy_Sasich: Even worse, I would say, you're dying unnecessarily for the treatment of a cancer that never existed. the nausea, the loss of your job, your living day to day thinking that you've got months at any time it's going to come back, that was all an illusion. All of

Javier: believe you?

Speaker: Randy_Sasich: All of it. No, he didn't. The first thing he did was call his wife and tell his wife, I'm an idiot,

Javier: Yeah.

Speaker: Randy_Sasich: which is the most appropriate response. The that's the only sane response that Scott Warwick could have had.

Javier: Yeah.

Speaker: Randy_Sasich: But I remember telling him, when somebody's that sick and that short of breath, they all have the same kind of thousand yard stare. They're concentrating on breathing. But I remember the look of disbelief in his eyes. The room was dark and I could tell he didn't believe me. Um, but I wanted him to, I wanted him to hang on So when I talked to his wife, I, Lisa, that was maybe the day after it was the same thing, like, you know, I know this is sounds crazy, but you know, he, I don't think this, he may not have cancer, I think is what I said. I don't think he does. He could get in for this insult. He could be healthy again. Like, please don't give up. Um, I'm, I'm pausing again because unfortunately I, you know, we all of us, still emotional for me, all of us, um, all of us have choices we've made, if we're doing this right. Uh, for treatment, to not to treat, That we'd like to have back So here you have this western like duel between these two doctors. Dr. Sasek is convinced that Scott Warwick does not have cancer. And Dr. Weiner, the rock star oncologist, is sticking to his diagnosis. Eventually, Scott Warwick stopped his chemotherapy treatment. And Dr. Sasek encouraged Scott to get a lung biopsy and test to assess the damage from all that chemo Randy_Sasich: the correct approach is to make sure you don't have an infection first and then to biopsy to get a piece of the lung to see if that's consistent with damage from a chemotherapy agent from gemcitabine. And that's what we did with the biopsy. When Dr. Weiner found out about the biopsy, he noted in Scott Warwick's file, quote, Dr. Sasick is still skeptical of the diagnosis, unquote. The test came back and showed that Scott Warwick had a fungal infection in his lungs, an infection likely caused due to the damage from the chemotherapy. Randy_Sasich: It came back with this fungus called PJP pneumocystis I gave him an antibiotic called Bactrim, which is the treatment for this. And he developed a horrible reaction to this. it's called Steven Johnson's. And basically it's a drug reaction. I, he got home on four liters of oxygen, came back in a week. Um, again, short of breath. And I didn't know he'd come back. I was in clinic and the nurse, one of the ICU nurses called me and she said, Something funny is happening with his skin and I didn't know what she was talking about, but I immediately left the clinic after patient crossed the street, went in there and saw his skin coming off from where the tape was on to hold his something in place on on their skin was kind of tearing away and I knew immediately what it was. I saw this happen early in my training, um, and it can affect your lungs too, it, it, it, your eyes, um, you can go blind, your mouth, your skin, um, it, he got sent to a burn unit, that's where you have to send these patients, I intubated him, I put him on a breathing machine, and we put him on a helicopter at the University of Utah, because we, we don't have a burn, didn't have a burn unit, and then he died two weeks later, ///ad break///According to a study published in the Journal of Global Oncology, most oncologists see between 15 to 25 patients a day, depending on where they practice. Even in low resource settings like rural hospitals, only about 20 percent of doctors handle more than 50 patients in a single day, but Dr. Weiner's numbers tell a completely different story. One estimate suggests that he saw 250 patients a year, an average of 40 patients a day. and in an interview with ProPublica, Dr. Weiner himself bragged about billing for as many as 70 patients in a single day. 70 patients, that's 7 0 in one day. At that pace, how much time could he have really spent on each patient? and how thorough were those diagnoses? Scott Warwick was just one of thousands of patients treated by Dr. Thomas Weiner. Randy_Sasich: And I'll say it here, honestly, I think the intent was to kill Scott Warwick. I do. It's a, is this man that incompetent and dumb? Or is there something malicious going on? And it's an impossible choice to make

Javier: of a, I can't think of a third option.

Speaker: There isn't one. And the hospital's in the same boat. Are you that incompetent? Are you that incompetent or are you complicit there? There really isn't another choice here how did this flurry of treatment get past the hospital administrators? How did this fly under the radar of insurance companies? To answer that question We have to look at the possible motivations. What could possibly make a doctor diagnose a patient with a fatal disease that he doesn't even have? The most logical answer is money. In the U. S. health care systems, doctors and hospitals are financially rewarded based on the volume, not necessarily the patient's outcome. the more the doctor bills for visits, tests, and treatments. The more revenue they generate. this system driven by a fee for service billing creates this perverse incentive that can lead to misdiagnosis over treatment, and even unnecessary procedures. A doctor who sees 10 patients a day earn significantly less than one who rushes through 40, and a patient with a complex or chronic illness. Whether real or exaggerated, becomes a steady revenue stream for both the doctor, and the hospital. An oncologist who prescribes chemotherapy, even when unnecessary, earns thousands of dollars per patient. Doctors like Thomas Weiner, who allegedly ordered chemotherapy for patients who didn't even have cancer, expose just how easily the system can be exploited. when I first learned about the story, I found multiple doctors accused of similar medical schemes. Dr. Ty, Dr. Weiner was just one example. And let's take, let's take Dr. Jorge Zamora. Casara. Let's take Dr. Jorge Zamora. Casada, a Texas rheumatologist who falsely diagnosed hundreds of patients with rheumatoid arthritis and prescribed them dangerous lifelong treatments that they didn't even need. He billed 325 million dollars in fraudulent claims. Patients suffered severe side effects while insurance companies unknowingly funneled millions of dollars into his practice. He was convicted of health care fraud and money laundering. Dr. Rosen, a dermatologist who told thousands of patients that they had, who told thousands of patients that they had skin cancer and performed completely unnecessary surgeries. it's reported that he diagnosed cancer on every single patient who came through his office and almost always performed some kind of skin surgery. and then there's Dr. Solomon Melgen of Florida. He robbed Medicare blind by giving patients unnecessary painful eye injections and falsifying diagnosis of macular degeneration. Some patients lost their vision permanently due to these unnecessary treatments. He was sentenced to 17 years in prison for fraud, President Donald Trump commuted the sentence of a Florida eye doctor convicted of defrauding Medicare out of 73 million. And these are just a few examples of how the medical system enables this kind of fraud. The list goes on and on. But let's get back to Dr. Thomas Weiner from Helena, Montana. Because this case is unraveling in real time as we speak. Dr. Weiner's record shattering billing made him the highest paid employee at St. Peter's Hospital. In a 2010 tax filing shows that Dr. Weiner earned almost 1. 3 million that year. The most he has ever been paid in a single year was 1. 8 million. Let's just put it this way, the hospital CEO made only 500, 000. Here's an audio clip from a 2021 deposition. Investigators ask Dr. Weiner about his salary DR. WEINER DEPOSITION/SALARYSpeaker 32: I'm looking under compensation reflects your base salary was 1, 847, 456. Speaker 33: Did I read that accurately? That's at this time in 1990, I mean, uh, 2019. Um, was that the highest base salary you had in your time at St. Peter South? I don't remember. Uh, what was your base salary then at the time of your departure? I think it was, uh, 1. 5. Somewhere around that. I don't know the exact, but roughly. He can't remember how many millions of dollars he was getting paid. I mean, just to put things into perspective, Dr. Thomas Weiner made $1.5 million a year as an oncologist at a nonprofit hospital with fewer than a hundred beds. That's nearly double the salary of a neurosurgeon, one of the highest paid doctors in medicine. During the time period that Dr. Weiner treated Scott Warwick, Dr. Weiner reportedly raked in almost 20 million. Investigators asked him why his salary was reduced. Well, in the end of March 2020, uh, Wade Johnson That's the new CEO of St. Peter's Hospital. came to me and said that, um, We either need to cut your salary or get rid of you and hire three other oncologists. Andeither basically accept it or leave. But Dr. Thomas Weiner didn't leave. As his astronomical salary grew more and more attention, Dr. Weiner decided to push back. He and a few other staff members staged a rebellion. According to the Independent Record out of Montana, an overwhelming number of St. Peter's medical staff signed the no confidence vote Against the hospital administration. Citing that they care more about the finances than they do about the quality of care delivered. Kind of ironic, right? According to ProPublica, Dr. Weiner repeatedly threatened to sue or resign, Leaving St. Peter's hospital without an oncologist. In an interview with ProPublica, Weiner said that without him, St. Peter had no cancer center. That's a lot of power for one. That is a lot of power for one doctor. So why didn't St. Peter's just hire a second oncologist? the current CEO of St. Peter's Hospital hired a consultant to review salary, and they concluded that hiring additional physicians could decrease Dr. Weiner's production effectively lowering his You see, doctors like Thomas Weiner don't get paid a flat salary. They earn based on RVUs, or Relative Value Units, a system that rewards doctors for seeing more patients and ordering more treatments. The more procedures he the more money he makes, giving him every incentive to keep the chemo flowing. But all of this came to a head when Dr. Randy Sasick blew the whistle on Dr. Weiner. Sasick's discovery that Scott Warwick received 11 years of cancer treatment without any evidence of cancer was just too hard to ignore.

Complaint Against Weinerjavier: so you filed this complaint against Dr. Weiner and, and what was his response?

Speaker: Randy_Sasich: So that's what I did, was went through peer review I later found out that this had been going on for years. They wanted him gone quietly, so he can go do this someplace else, I guess.

Javier: Mm

Speaker: Randy_Sasich: Weiner didn't react. Not to me anyway. He was too powerful. I was a traveling physician and of no consequence.

Javier: Yeah,

Speaker: Randy_Sasich: He did send a text to the hospital president, that said, FYI, I found the FYI part funny. FYI, put a muzzle on Sassick or else. Weiner's reaction was, well, I mean, it's, it's, it's comic book villain. FYI.

Javier: mafia like like a mob boss putting a hit on somebody, right?

Speaker: Randy_Sasich: I mean, there's, there's another quote in there that I think the journalist got that it was a, Weiner called it an insight joke where he told somebody, give him the drug he ordered or rip your, their lips off. This doesn't happen in hospitals anymore. It happened right before I started training when physicians were treated like gods.

Javier: Sure,

Speaker: Randy_Sasich: You could, you could, you could act like a four year old in an operating room and throw scalpels and nothing would happen to you. That doesn't exist anymore. I mean, it's shocking that you can threaten a colleague in the 21st century in an American hospital and just go about your business. I, I, that, that floored me as much as anything. That there's a literal fact with him writing, give me what I want or I'll rip your lips off. And texting the president, put a muzzle on somebody. Yeah, he was, he was, he was that powerful and he knew it. I just don't know how this goes unnoticed. Well, it turns out that other physicians were paying attention, like Dr. Robert LeClaire. They just weren't as vocal as Dr. Sassick. when asked why he didn't say anything, Dr. LeClaire told ProPublica that he was just caught up in the culture. Dr. LeClaire may not have spoken out, but he was secretly documenting his concerns. This was actually not meeting standard of care. And I can't emphasize enough how important that term is. Standard of care. Yeah, if you don't meet standard of care, that's, that's very serious, and that was all in the medical record. That doesn't need to be deemed from anything else. The medical director is, is the story. An independent review conducted by the University of Utah noted an incident involving a 16 year old, a 62 year old patient of Dr. Weiner who was being treated for throat cancer. The reviewers noted that there was no biopsy confirming the diagnosis and that providing cancer treatment without confirming a biopsy is extremely problematic and does not rise to the level of standard care. and they even went as far as calling it malpractice. So here we have a second patient who received treatment with no biopsy or any proof that the patient had cancer. A third patient was receiving chemotherapy for breast cancer and even underwent a mastectomy. After the procedure and a follow up visit, Dr. Weiner noted in her chart that there is, quote, no evidence of recurrence, unquote. But records show that Dr. Weiner didn't even conduct a simple breast examination. Since he skipped that physical exam, the tumor, which went undetected for months, returned. It took the patient to notice the lump herself There's also the mysterious death of a 16 year old girl who suddenly died under Dr. Weiner's care. Dr. Sasick recalled hearing that Dr. Weiner was frustrated that another doctor had been treating her, and once Dr. Weiner took over, she didn't live much longer. And once Dr. Weiner took over, unfortunately, she didn't live much longer. In a 2019 text exchange, the hospital's chief nurse suggested sending all of the hospital's end of life patients to oncology. Even though these were not cancer patients, she added, quote, I just feel like those nurses do it best, unquote. Weiner, Dr. Weiner welcomed that suggestion and responded, I agree. Randy_Sasich: And he responds with a text with two exclamation points on the end. Which is just chilling. He was excited to have that. It's just so chilling.

Javier: How many people do you think lost their lives?

Speaker: Randy_Sasich: This is, this is the, the records are so poor, So we've got 24 years with a guy who, who, who's shown what he does, who's nobody's watching, or the people that are watching are controlled by him. So the answer is not dozens. The answer is scores, maybe hundreds.

Javier: God

Speaker: Randy_Sasich: Injuries? Thousands.

Javier: Right.

Speaker: Randy_Sasich: There's not, there's not a case I looked into that I saw with Weiner. I saw one where he did the correct thing. It was that bad. And it was a blind squirrel getting a nut He's that bad. Weiner decided to end these people's lives. And in some cases we know he was changing code statuses without them knowing about it or being involved in the discussion, which is just. That the hospital knew he was doing this and didn't remove him immediately is unconscionable. Under immense pressure and scrutiny, St. Peter's Hospital suspended Dr. Weiner. The news of his departure caused quite a reaction, but not the kind of reaction that you would expect. Here we are, standing for Dr. Wiener. Go Team Wiener. Go Team Wiener. Whoop whoop Dozens of supporters lined the streets waving posters in support for the fallen oncologist. One sign read, Dr. Weiner saved my life. Another said, Justice for Dr. Weiner. there is one doctor, Dr. Tom Weiner, who needs our support. His patients and this community have supported him, but what he has done for our community is outstanding. I'm really, really upset. Like, I'm gonna cry because Dr. Weiner saved my life. And was an amazing, amazing man for me and my family he's an amazing physician and a very amazing caretaker. I'll be writing letters and I'm really, really disappointed in St. Peter's. Supporters even raised money for a billboard that read, We stand with Dr. Weiner. His supporters are composed of former patients, people in the community, but most importantly, his team of nurses. ProPublica reported that from 2005 to 2020, Dr. Weiner showered his staff With bonuses and jewelry. Spending up to 140, 000 of his own money. Some nurses even got 1, 500 diamond solitaire earrings. From the sound of it, he treated his team well. And since the accusations came out They're returning the favor. Here we are protesting again against St. Pete's for letting go of our cancer doc. We're not going away, Wade, like you thought we would by Christmas. We're still here. His supporters even stood up a We Stand With Dr. Tom Weiner Facebook group.

His Supporterjavier: And that leads me to my next question, which is the part that blows my mind. Is his fanatical supporters, the billboards, the Facebook groups, this cult like following that he has. How do you explain that? Yeah,

Speaker: Randy_Sasich: so much. Um, cult's the right word. And I'll start with, cult's the right descriptor. But these are victims. These are victims. There were times when I was angry at them. They put my name on signs. I'm still afraid of them. Um, It is a cult headed by a wealthy murderous physician with an anger problem. Yeah, I'm scared of them. Randy_Sasich: That's that's you've got Weiner and some people closely around them, family members, andon one of the Facebook pages. two of them made a float during Christmas We stand with Weiner Awesome! Hey! Hey Randy_Sasich: and they dressed up as is as Joseph and Mary and there was a cradle there And it was in the Weiner support purple. They chose purple for the ribbons I assume that in the cradle was supposed to be the baby Jesus, but I'm not sure like that's the extent this goes There was stuff on Facebook pages talking about him the greatest oncologist in the world comparing him to Jesus a cult, and they're victims of somebody they're supposed to trust in possibly the most vulnerable Scary moment of their lives. And this man tortured them for money. On November 17th, 2020, St. Peter's Hospital fired Dr. Weiner. Days later, Weiner sued the hospital for wrongful termination and defamation. He also sued Dr. Randy Sasick. lawsuitsRandy_Sasich: I still have two lawsuits against me. I have a case in the Um, first district court where I'm still being sued for slander, um, by Weiner. and I also, it also got separated out to where I'm also a defendant. An appellee is the word at the Montana Supreme Court for all the other charges, civil conspiracy and everything else. But yeah, it was a, it was designed to shut me up and intimidate me the whole

Javier: yeah, and he has the money to do it. I mean, can you imagine how much money that guy has?

Speaker: After Weiner was fired from St. Peter's Hospital, more problems floated to the surface. Dozens of patients wanted to get refills for painkillers. I'm talking about Oxycodone, Morphine, And other opioids. But here's the problem. The hospital couldn't find any prescriptions for these patients. According to court testimonies, Dr. Weiner was writing all these prescriptions by hand. Some of these patients didn't even have cancer. or any medical reason why they would need these drugs. Dr. Weiner denies these allegations. AD BREAKSharon Dibble was 75 years old battling kidney failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Two conditions that already make breathing difficult. But on March 6, 2018, for reasons unclear to medical reviewers, Dr. Weiner doubled her extended release morphine from 30 to 60 mg twice a day, on top of her oxycodone regimen. Four days later, her daughter found her limp, blue in the face, and not breathing. Paramedics rushed her to St. Peter's where she was placed on life support, but the damage was done. More than two weeks in the hospital, Sharon Dibble never woke up. for a woman with failing kidney and lung disease, that much morphine was a death sentence. OVERRIDING PATIENTS CODE STATUSTo make matters worse, Dr. Weiner is also accused of changing patient code status without their permission. For example, if a patient elects to be intubated in order to keep breathing, Dr. Weiner would change their status to do not resuscitate or do not intubate according to court documents. All this without the patient's consent. Randy_Sasich: There were pieces of meat where if there was enough written down, he'd give them chemotherapy. It was that bad.

Javier: Yeah.

Speaker: Randy_Sasich: And that's what happened to Scott over 11 years. The man was tortured, tortured, tortured, and then killed. I would never have known about this case if it wasn't for the incredible reporting by David McSwain at ProPublica. His article, Eat What You Kill, Which I will link in the show notes, dives deep into the Dr. Weiner controversy. The title, Eat What You Kill, itself comes from a quote by Dr. Weiner, who describes how the more patients a doctor treats, the more money they make. In other words, eat what you kill.

We Eat What We Killjavier: the article is titled very appropriately, right?

Speaker: Randy_Sasich: Yeah, I mean, it's the com who says that to a reporter? You're you're treating cancer patients. Eat what you kill? What's wrong with you? I mean, something horrible's wrong with you, but what

Javier: But that, that is very telling of his worldview, right, or, or the way he, he

Speaker: Randy_Sasich: Yeah, he's surrounded by people who would never question him. He he set it up this way. And he, he doesn't know how monstrous what he's done and what he's, what he says he doesn't, he doesn't see it. propublicaJavier: ProPublica deserves Yes. Randy_Sasich: accolades for, for not only the story I'm involved with for, but for that week of stories where they, they just laid it out. We live in a broken healthcare system, period. Full stop.

Javier: in the age, uh, that we're in right now, where, where the media is being villainized and attacked. I mean, we need the ProPublicas. We can't let ProPublica be cowered down to some sort of lawsuit you know what I mean?

Speaker: Randy_Sasich: and I think you're absolutely right. I think, as we go forward, that a non corporate media that gets its money, you know, it doesn't have shareholders it has to, to answer to. It's decentralized and it's full of a bunch of people who are investigative journalists. I think they're going to be the last thing standing out here for major This past August, St. Peter's Hospital reached a 10. 8 million settlement with the U. S. Attorney for the District of Montana for submitting false claims for services performed by Dr. Weiner. And as of this recording, no criminal charges have been filed. TEASENext time on Pretend, you're going to hear from a patient who had three years of cancer treatment for cancer that she never even had. this is a story about another doctor in a completely different part of the country.

Patty Hester: you can't give someone who's healthy medications they don't don't

Speaker: need. And, for three three years. and not have a repercussion That's next time, on Pretend. today's episode was written by me, Javier Leyva, and it was edited by the talented Poonis Chonoy, with the podcast pundits. If you want to listen to part two, subscribe to Patreon or Pretend Plus on Apple Podcast. And make sure to follow us on social media, at PretendPod. I'd love to hear what you think about this story, so shoot me a message. And remember, the best way to support this podcast is to tell a friend to listen or leave a review. I appreciate all of you. We'll be back next week. Talk to you soon.