Dr. Fadi Ghanem's Legal Assistance Fund
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Dr. Fadi Ghanem's Legal Assistance Fund to cover and pay attorneys and court fees, to support the UNJUSTIFIED ARREST AND PROSECUTION OF A WELL RESPECTED AND LOVED LOCAL DOCTOR!
What Happened:
On November 4th, 2019 Police raided Dr. Ghanem’s place of work during office hours and arrested him on charges of “prescribing controlled substances to someone he knew or should have known to be an abuser of narcotics or dangerous drugs or other than medical purposes”. The time and manner of the arrest interrupted business and intimidated both patients and employees. Additionally, the police seized office property, including confidential patient records, leading to privacy concerns and suspending the ability of hundreds of patients to access their medical information, critically compromising their ongoing and future medical care.
Why it Happened:
In recent years the nation has been beset by what has been called an opioid epidemic. Indeed, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), “opioids were involved in 47,600 overdose deaths in 2017”. In order to combat this worrying trend, the national government sprang into action. In 2018, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the formation of a new Justice Department task force specifically dedicated to fighting the opioid epidemic. The mandate of this new task force is “to target drug manufacturers and distributors whose overselling of prescription painkillers have fueled the opioid crisis.” As a result, doctors across the nation, apprehensive of legal persecution, felt forced to flee from caring for patients who were seeking pain treatment. This series of events led to millions of patients who previously had been receiving professional treatment for chronic pain to lose access to that treatment, bringing about additional suffering and perhaps causing wider abuse of illicit drugs and even more overdoses.
Dr. Ghanem, who has been in practice in the Woodlands, Texas since 1995 is one of the few doctors who continued to attend and care for his patients including those suffering with chronic pain (both physical and emotional). A few years ago, the American Board of Medical Specialties, the American Society of Addiction Medicines and the CDC all issued extensive guidelines (in some places contradictory) regarding chronic pain management, such as limiting the amount of opioids that may be prescribed at a time. Dr. Ghanem, in good faith, applied his experience and individual knowledge of his patients to follow these rapidly evolving guidelines to the best of his abilities. In addition, any patient being treated for pain was required to attend regular meetings on pain management alternatives conducted by the Hundred Hands Alliance, a non-profit organization founded by Dr. Ghanem specifically to support the community he had built around his practice. All who know Dr. Ghanem know him to be both compassionate and attentive taking every measure to insure his patients’ care and safety including and up to discharging patients on the rare occasions he would discover misuse/abuse of prescriptions.
What can you do:
Over the past few years, a war of attrition has been waged against Dr. Ghanem. As a consequence of his courageous effort to continue caring for all of his patients, Dr. Ghanem has had to defend himself and his patients time and time again from various external attacks from those who believed he should cease caring for them. So it happened that by the time of this final incident Dr. Ghanem has been wiped clean financially.
This is where friends, colleagues, and the community come in. We are creating this GoFundMe account to assist with his Legal expenses and keep him afloat while he demonstrates his innocence and rebuilds his practice. We are asking for help from the generous people of this community, from the concerned people of this nation, and from the grateful people Dr. Ghanem has helped over all these years.
Please feel free to donate to this worthy cause which touches all of us and those in the healing profession who continue to work, responsibly and in good faith, to treat and care for those in need.
Explanatory Letter
A conversation with Dr. Ghanem on why he chose to practice family medicine (video!)
Coming to America
Related reading
Collateral damage to the integrity of treating chronic debilitating pain by licensed physician
Also... a meditative song/poem by no other than Leonard Cohen...
Dr. Fadi Ghanem's Legal Assistance Fund to cover and pay attorneys and court fees, to support the UNJUSTIFIED ARREST AND PROSECUTION OF A WELL RESPECTED AND LOVED LOCAL DOCTOR!
What Happened:
On November 4th, 2019 Police raided Dr. Ghanem’s place of work during office hours and arrested him on charges of “prescribing controlled substances to someone he knew or should have known to be an abuser of narcotics or dangerous drugs or other than medical purposes”. The time and manner of the arrest interrupted business and intimidated both patients and employees. Additionally, the police seized office property, including confidential patient records, leading to privacy concerns and suspending the ability of hundreds of patients to access their medical information, critically compromising their ongoing and future medical care.
Why it Happened:
In recent years the nation has been beset by what has been called an opioid epidemic. Indeed, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), “opioids were involved in 47,600 overdose deaths in 2017”. In order to combat this worrying trend, the national government sprang into action. In 2018, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the formation of a new Justice Department task force specifically dedicated to fighting the opioid epidemic. The mandate of this new task force is “to target drug manufacturers and distributors whose overselling of prescription painkillers have fueled the opioid crisis.” As a result, doctors across the nation, apprehensive of legal persecution, felt forced to flee from caring for patients who were seeking pain treatment. This series of events led to millions of patients who previously had been receiving professional treatment for chronic pain to lose access to that treatment, bringing about additional suffering and perhaps causing wider abuse of illicit drugs and even more overdoses.
Dr. Ghanem, who has been in practice in the Woodlands, Texas since 1995 is one of the few doctors who continued to attend and care for his patients including those suffering with chronic pain (both physical and emotional). A few years ago, the American Board of Medical Specialties, the American Society of Addiction Medicines and the CDC all issued extensive guidelines (in some places contradictory) regarding chronic pain management, such as limiting the amount of opioids that may be prescribed at a time. Dr. Ghanem, in good faith, applied his experience and individual knowledge of his patients to follow these rapidly evolving guidelines to the best of his abilities. In addition, any patient being treated for pain was required to attend regular meetings on pain management alternatives conducted by the Hundred Hands Alliance, a non-profit organization founded by Dr. Ghanem specifically to support the community he had built around his practice. All who know Dr. Ghanem know him to be both compassionate and attentive taking every measure to insure his patients’ care and safety including and up to discharging patients on the rare occasions he would discover misuse/abuse of prescriptions.
What can you do:
Over the past few years, a war of attrition has been waged against Dr. Ghanem. As a consequence of his courageous effort to continue caring for all of his patients, Dr. Ghanem has had to defend himself and his patients time and time again from various external attacks from those who believed he should cease caring for them. So it happened that by the time of this final incident Dr. Ghanem has been wiped clean financially.
This is where friends, colleagues, and the community come in. We are creating this GoFundMe account to assist with his Legal expenses and keep him afloat while he demonstrates his innocence and rebuilds his practice. We are asking for help from the generous people of this community, from the concerned people of this nation, and from the grateful people Dr. Ghanem has helped over all these years.
Please feel free to donate to this worthy cause which touches all of us and those in the healing profession who continue to work, responsibly and in good faith, to treat and care for those in need.
Explanatory Letter
A conversation with Dr. Ghanem on why he chose to practice family medicine (video!)
Coming to America
Related reading
Collateral damage to the integrity of treating chronic debilitating pain by licensed physician
Also... a meditative song/poem by no other than Leonard Cohen...
Organizer
Missid Ghanem
Organizer
Spring, TX