Debra Nickel Heck MD was a victim of Board of Medicine attack in 2007.  She volunteered her story for me to publish.  Here it is:

I began med school at age 33 with childoctoren ages 4, 6 & 9 as God had directed me. I’m a very committed Christian & have had to ability to hear Him tell me what I should do at important times. It’s TRULY helped me know how to treat people at times when I’d otherwise not have known what to do. I always give Him credit in such circumstances. HONESTY is the most important aspect of my life. I developed fibromyalgia when I first began my private practice. Because it WAS legal to write opioids for myself at the time in my state, I did so IF I’d had another doctor give me such medications before. I EVEN checked with DEA agents to assure STRONGER meds were okay for me to treat myself with when that became necessary and was assured it was indeed legal. THAT’S how HONEST I was.

I had learned, beginning my third year of medical school, how to treat pain patients appropriately and learned that FEW doctors even CARED to do so–which disgusted me. In residency, I became well respected by many staff doctors for this, in part because I’d known them for years as our kids had been in school together, but also for many years they knew me as a responsible person & I could be trusted. Many would come to ME for advice on this and assistance in treating depressed patients as many had little training in psychiatry & I had a natural ability in treating such patients. My residency director COULDN’T STAND ME & SCAPEGOATED me as I’d seen him do another excellent woman the previous year. He HATED women. I ended up getting him fired when the hospital president had lunch with another 3rd year resident at the end of our time there and asked us about his perturbation. We were both honest and the president was appalled. Honesty goes far.

In the beginning of my practice I worked at an urgent care faculty for 3.5 years. I became the most desired doctor there and virtually built the practice. The office manager didn’t like me because I felt she did a poor job, such as firing an excellent employee. This employee had an abusive boyfriend who caused problems in the office, and rather than tell her we’d protect her and call the cops if he came again as I later did in a similar situation in my own practice, she was fired. She was devastated and called me. I went in to talk to my boss about this but he said nothing.

Later there was a problem with the company that bought us out because we were the most profitable of all the clinics due to my having brought in so many patients. Completely unbeknownst to me, the manager sent to the home office a PRIVATE MEMO I’d sent to my boss at his home about the ILLEGAL ACTIONS they’d done. He then just told me I’d “done such a stupid thing” but didn’t explain what, and fired me. Because it had involved asking my husband for information, I asked him to talked to my boss but he didn’t. If he HAD, it would’ve come out WHAT had occurred & I’d have been vindicated. Unfortunately, that’s the way he is. He FEARS talking to others about anything whereas I go to DEFEND ANYONE in trouble. Two years later I learned that the office manager sent the memo to the Home Office. She was then fired but I received no apology. I went into private practice. I’d planned to do so but not so soon.

I had a successful practice in terms of patients appreciating my care. I ONLY demanded they be HONEST with me so I’d know how to care for them. I said Christ didn’t come to care for the PERFECT & I wanted to treat those with problems BUT I couldn’t treat problems I didn’t know existed. They had ONE CHANCE to tell me the TRUTH IF they’d lied to me BUT if they lied a second time, they were FIRED because they knew my rule.

I only had to do so twice. I knew far too many doctors didn’t believe their patients which was WHY I placed such an emphasis on honesty. It’s odd but I really don’t know HOW to lie. I prayed for God to NEVER let me take credit for anything HE’D done for me to help someone. I had no idea WHY I’d done such a thing for 25 years until I realized the GIFT He’d given me to hear Him tell me HOW to treat patients when I might otherwise not have known. It’s TRUE! I was amazed for so long until I realized it was part of who I was meant to be.

The fibromyalgia was also part of me and necessitated I take opioids. I NEVER had taken a recreational drug or drank alcohol except on RARE occasions when I shared a “sissy drink” w/Tom, my husband. I’d been inebriated once at 18 & thought it was the STUPIDEST thing I’d ever done. I HATED anything that kept me from being in absolute control. Opioids DID NOT do that to me because I took them to help me FUNCTION NORMALLY which is what those in pain experience. I was an excellent pain doctor and was told so by outstanding back surgeons who did NOT like how anesthesiologists treated back pain using procedures that were inserted in patients which they then had to remove if surgery was needed. They liked my medical treatment. I was told if I referred a patient to them, they KNEW surgery was needed. I couldn’t believe I was so respected.

I had just moved to a bigger office when Tom & I went to a meeting in San Francisco. As we were headed home, I received a call that my mom had suffered a series of TIAs. I had a sister in Columbus, OH–two hours away–to take care of her. I didn’t know she was in the midst of a bday party for her husband but I was FARTHER away.

I was tired from moving into the new office when a patient with an odd personality called demanding to be seen for pneumonia. She refused to go to the ER fearing they would hospitalize her. She knew I could treat her. I said it would be 9pm before I could see her. She said she’d wait. Well at 9PM I needed my breakthrough meds which happened to be in the room where she was. She knew I took them because she also had fibro & we’d discussed meds to treat it. I said I was sorry but I didn’t have an office yet & I needed to get my meds out of my drawer. I got them, excused myself then returned ASAP. I listened to her chest which sounded terrible. I gave her oxygen, a nebulizer treatment then an antibiotic shot. I said I could take a lesion off her back we’d discussed doing before since she had to wait 20 minutes after the shot. I did that so she didn’t have to make a separate visit for that. She said she was grateful for my doing so. She returned in two days for a recheck & sounded much better. In one week her chest was clear.

Five weeks later I had a call from the State Social Worker asking about my fibromyalgia and was I treating it. I told her yes and that I had the okay from 3 DEA agents. “I still want you to see a pain Doctor.” I explained I’d tried to find one but had been told by a doctor when I’d been hospitalized & asked the doctor who started me on fentanyl if he’d see me he said he couldn’t but I was the BEST PAIN DOCTOR around and could treat myself so I continued to. She didn’t care. I had to find someone. I did, and he said “You’re treating yourself exactly right.” I asked him to write a letter to the social worker. He then began asking me questions to make me sound as though I was bipolar and/or hypomanic. He had me see an addiction doctor two weeks later who said I had no problems. HOWEVER, the pain Doctor LIED & said the addiction Doctor said I DID! I told him he had said no such thing. He continued to be emphatic that I was bipolar, needed to get into psychotherapy & on antipsychotics. I said I DID NOT AND he hadn’t listened to me when I’d TRIED to tell him about what had happened to me when I was 12, being accused of being a hypochondriac before a GOOD Radiologist figured out I had Crohn’s disease. This helped make me a GOOD Doctor because I knew how patients did & didn’t like to be treated. The pain doctor said nobody cared what happened when I was 12. He was concerned that I wouldn’t know how to act if I had to go before the Board. THAT infuriated me since I’d had great experience in such circumstances. “I’m going out to tear up the form allowing you to give out what’s happened in our visits and rewrite one stating you may NOT give out ANY information as you’ve done nothing but LIE about me.”

My husband, Tom, sent him a fax that day telling him what I’d wanted to say. The doctor wrote him back saying he obviously loved me but I needed great help & he needed to see I got it. TOM DIDN’T SHOW ME EITHER OF THESE LETTERS FOR 18 MONTHS, JUST BEFORE I WAS HAVING MY LICENSE REVOKED!

This UNETHICAL social worker had been having honest doctors like me get their licenses revoked for ten years before me. It’s like notches in her belt. Because the Board members change every few years, they don’t realize what she does and how. She had a connection with the addiction evaluators at the places where she demands the innocent Doctors go, and tells the evaluators what to say/write to the Board. Then good evaluations, despite the doctors being told to GET such evaluations & letters from people are REJECTED for various reasons or are said to have “arrived too late” to be of use. The 1st center evaluation I had was virtually taken from the INITIAL pain Doctor I saw. He’d been an OB/GYN before a back injury caused him to get another residency in psych. I then got an independent evaluation from an outstanding doctor who’d been an addiction doctor then began skin pain management. She said I wasn’t on enough pain meds. She changed it and I finally felt fabulous! I didn’t want to change the breakthrough until the fall due to the weather changes & I didn’t know if it would work as well for breakthrough as what I was on. She agreed BUT in the letter she wrote to the next place I was going, she said I’d be taking the new one immediately. I said she’d better change this or they’d say I wasn’t being cooperative. She didn’t think they’d take it that way. I disagree BUT she said she’d talk to them before they wrote their evaluation. I WAS RIGHT! They wrote their report BEFORE calling her and said I was uncooperative in not starting this med immediately, was an addict & should go to an addiction center! I went to ANOTHER place where I could get an OBJECTIVE evaluation which also showed that I was not an addict.

This all took place over a period of two years and cost $40K! When I was FINALLY able to meet with this unethical woman and her advising doctor for the purpose of getting a time to make an appointment to see the Board, she said I COULDN’T because I’d NOT ATTENDED A 12-STEP PROGRAM! I said I didn’t NEED to because I wasn’t an addict as proven by all the tests I’d taken & courses I’d attended. No, she said, I HAD to attend one of those courses. I said I could TEACH them. She also said the massage therapist I had in my office wasn’t appropriate. In conversation I happened to ask her who HER doctor was. It turned out her doctor was the other doctor my massage therapist worked for. She kept telling me he was not authorized to assist me. He charged my patients a low fee so they could come frequently but in her doctor’s office he charged more because it was more high class!

When I went before the Board they asked my name. I said “Which one do you want?” They asked if I used any aliases. “No but on the firm I had to use my legal 1st, maiden & last names. On my diploma I used my preferred name: Debbie Nickels Heck, MD. So which one do you want?” They all laughed! I could tell they felt they weren’t talking to the person they’d had all this data about & fully expected me to return in 90 days to be reinstated after getting an independent evaluation. But the unethical social worker could NOT lose a victim!

Well, God had told me I’d initially be needed to help my family because doctors wouldn’t know how to treat them But I’d later be needed for other things. But WHAT?

I traveled for 2 years with Tom learning about his financial issues & loved it. Then we had SEVEN grandkids in 5.5 years who NEEDED ME to take care of them! Would you believe ROCKING & CUDDLING them helped decrease my fibro pain & got me off half my pain meds? I went to a meeting and told a few people this. I said I called it “Healing Touch.” I was told they were studying the same thing and calling it the same thing! Isn’t it AMAZING how God had LED me to EXACTLY what He’d meant for me to do!  Two of those grandkids in particular would’ve been in danger of significant neglect if I’d not been there at the right time. I’ve wished I could’ve still been there for my patients. I loved them so much, though, that I’m afraid I might not have left them to be where I was really needed for my family. God knows best at all times.

All of my grandkids are now in school & it’s time for me to go back to work. I hope the Board will LISTEN to this HONEST STORY & reinstate me. I’m NOW NEEDED by patients who aren’t listened to by their doctors just as my grandkids wouldn’t have been listened to by their parents who ALL know God listens to them & will ALWAYS have their backs as He’s ALWAYS had MINE.

These BOARDS need to know and accept the truth, and not use people who have dishonest reasons for stating lies against honest physicians.

 

 

 

Addendum

Dr. Heck had a pain problem herself. But due to the attacks on pain management, she was force tapered off of her medication.  She had a severe pain incident Dec, 27, 2022, and as a result, had a cardiac arrest and died.  Rest in peace, Dr. Heck.

If you want the attacks on pain management to stop, you need to get behind us–Doctors (and patients) of Courage, because we hold the key on DoC.  It is only through people understanding that no drug is the cause of addiction that we can stop these attacks.  We have to get the CSA repealed and all people charged with drug crimes exonerated and compensated. The entire purpose of the War on Drugs was to disenfranchise minorities and it needs to end.