The medical records of several Montana chronic pain patients were seized last week during a federal raid of a medical clinic in a strip mall in southern California. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration requested a warrant to seize narcotics, payment records, and patient information at the clinic of Doctor Forest Tennant.
The raid on Tennant’s clinic came as he was testifying on behalf of Hamilton pain Doctor Chris Christensen. On Monday a jury found Christensen guilty of 22 felony counts related to over-prescription of narcotics, including 2 negligent homicide charges.
The federal drug trafficking investigation focusing on Doctor Tennant, includes multiple other physicians, and a pharmacy, and began in 2015.
Court documents say Tennant prescribed pain killing drugs to 45 patients living in 25 different states.
Several Montanans who fly to California to get opioid prescriptions and treatment for their pain from Dr. Tenant’s clinic that they say they can’t get at home told Montana Public Radio Monday that they have sent in requests for the return of their medical files.
Gary Snook is among them. He’s worried this could mean he loses access to the medications that give him pain relief. Without them, he says his body feels like a piece of meat sizzling over a hot skillet.
"This disease I have, and the pain it makes is beyond all human comprehension, that I don’t believe a healthy person can even imagine."
Another patient who didn’t want to speak on the tape also said they’re worried about their access to pain killing drugs fading amid a federal crackdown of opioid abuse.
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