Home Forums Discussions General Discussion Horror story

This event happened several months ago and filled me with terror. I still can hardly believe it, but what's more surprising IMO is that I don't think it achieved any notoriety beyond the locale in which it occurred. Tell me anyone whether you heard about the story of Dr. Gabriele.

Dr. G. was a successful opthalmologist with three offices and was well known in the area. Nearly everyone had seen his primetime ads during the evening news. His wife was his office manager. It had more recently been widely known that he was being audited and then investigated for suspicion of health care fraud. Even so, no one expected what was to happen.

According to the letter delivered to the local news station by Dr. G, he and his wife had planned this for two weeks prior. On an early Monday morning before dawn, he and his wife went to their office. Investigators say that Dr. G. shot his wife five times in the chest, killing her. Later that morning as police approached the office, they heard a gunshot. Dr. G. had shot himself in the head, ending his life. A close friend of the two stated that the previous evening, they were severely distressed, to the point of vomiting. The suicide note, posted on the news station's website, proclaimed their innocence of the fraud charges and railed against an unjust medicolegal climate. He hoped that the incident would "be a wake up call" to America.

Sadly perhaps, hardly a peep was heard in the media, and America goes on snoozing albeit with restless legs syndrome or obstructive apnea.

Well, I had to share that for some reason.

I'm surprised that it took this long for something like this to happen. This whole thing where doctors are basically assumed guilty until proven innocent and tried in the media is really sad. People decide they don't want to follow a doctors advice and put scathing things on anonymous internet sites. Worse, they can make false charges to the Dept of Health, after which said departmant can come in and look for ANYTHING (not just the issues of the complaint). They want to come in and demand antibiotics for a cold and if the doctor doesnt give it they complain to the insurance company and doh. Meanwhile, we get junk mail from the CDC with an actual decision-tree for doctors to tell them when they should prescribe an antibiotic (really, just got this last week). As if they don't already know.

To the newspaper's credit (albeit a little late?), they have posted twelve documents sent by the deceased physician which include a letter addressed to the public, expert defense testimonies, and letters from the defense attorney.

http://www.wsbt.com/news/local/48264657.html