Pain Relief Leader Siobhan Reynolds Dies in Plane Crash

By Jeralyn, Section Media
Posted on Mon Dec 26, 2011 at 01:24:30 PM EST
Tags: Siobhan Reynolds (all tags)

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Sad news from the Agitator: Pain Relief spokesperson Siobhan Reynolds, who for years fought the feds, and proseuctor Tanya Treadway, advocating for the rights of pain patients and doctors who prescribe to them, died in a plane crash this weekend. She was 50.

See this Slate article by Radley Balko on the vindictive grand jury investigation against her.

One of the people she helped: Richard Paey, a 45-year-old father of three in a wheelchair, suffering from multiple sclerosis and chronic pain from botched back surgery, sentenced to 25-years for forging prescriptions to treat his pain. Reynolds helped get the sentence reversed. An interview with Paey is here.

One more to read: Cato's 2005 Treating Doctors as Drug Dealers:The DEA’s War on Prescription Painkillers.

Advocates against the war on drugs have lost an important ally. RIP, Sibohan Reynolds.

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Pain Relief Leader Siobhan Reynolds Dies in Plane Crash | 6 comments (6 topical)

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I will never forget (5.00 / 2) (#1)
by jimakaPPJ on Mon Dec 26, 2011 at 01:50:17 PM EST

having a nurse explain to me that they couldn't give my 90 year old mother more pain medicine because of the "guidelines."

Guidelines??? A 90 year old with a broken hip should be allowed to suffer because of "guidelines?"

I pushed and pushed and they finally increased the dosage.

We need more people like Mrs Reynolds. She will be missed.

: the problem is that they (5.00 / 1) (#3)
by TeresaInPa on Mon Dec 26, 2011 at 03:47:29 PM EST

have doctors and patients pitted against each other. If someone gets physically dependent which is very possible OMG, THEY ARE ADDICTED. BS, it is not the same thing. So the outcome is that doctors are all afraid to get nabbed for dealing and patients get treated like addicts. Sometimes I understand why people just go to the street, it seems to be easier than asking for pain medication and being treated like a badly behaved teenager.

: I agree, Jim (none / 0) (#2)
by Zorba on Mon Dec 26, 2011 at 02:27:13 PM EST

Been there, done that with my father when he was dying (which took an excruciating four months). I had to call his own personal physician and raise holy he!!, and he did swoop into the hospital and make sure that Dad got the pain relief he needed. Come on- an elderly patient in pain is going to be at risk of becoming some kind of wild-eyed dope addict? The whole DEA war on physicians, as referenced above by Jeralyn, has made many doctors afraid of treating pain appropriately.

Several factors at work here (5.00 / 3) (#4)
by NYShooter on Mon Dec 26, 2011 at 04:43:06 PM EST

Prosecutors want verdicts, not justice. There's nothing juicier than nabbing a "Hi-Falluten" Professional like a doctor.
Doctors themselves are inured to pain. They deal with it daily and are indifferent to the suffering. The "inside baseball" line is, "no one dies from a little pain."
"Guidelines" are just that, guidelines. I little 80 pound youngster is going to react differently to medication than a 240 strapping athlete. Also, if you've had to take pain medication previously your body develops a tolerance for it, and different doses are required.
Finally, it's just the way we've let our country evolve. Every problem we have must be dealt with using ignorance, punishment, intolerance, and suffering.

Yes. (5.00 / 2) (#10)
by Zorba on Mon Dec 26, 2011 at 05:53:07 PM EST

If I hear one more time "On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you classify your pain?", I'm going to scream. What, exactly, does that mean? I'm betting that it means very different things to the doctors than it does to the actual patients. I realize that it's very hard to quantify pain, since different people can have very different tolerances for pain, but what does the scale mean to the health professionals? Has anyone asked them what they think about what pain means to different people (as well as to themselves)? I'm betting not.


: yup (5.00 / 1) (#11)
by TeresaInPa on Mon Dec 26, 2011 at 06:42:41 PM EST

my ten on the pain scale is giving birth to a almost 11 lb baby without any meds. But I am pretty sure that having my leg amputated without meds and with a dull knife would be more painful, but how do I know?
Yesterday I got a quarter sized pain on the back of my leg that if it had been, say, basketball sized, would have sent me screaming to the emergency room. But it was only quarter sized so was that a ten or a five?
I suffer from chronic pain and have for 25 years. I have managed most of that time without narcotic pain meds and have not taken them since Easter. But since 2007 which is the first time I took them for any period of time (several months) I have met one out of about 15 doctors who really understands pain. Those are not good odds.
ps...doctors do not like when you try to educate them.