On October 6th, 1996,  seventy year old Rosario Gurrieri
passed away while a patient in Highlands Regional Medical
Center located in Sebring Fl.  This individual had been
diagnosed with terminal lung cancer and had only a VERY short
time left in his life.  His family had requested that feeding and
other life support be removed on the morning of his passing.
Later in the day that same family requested that the patient be
kept free of pain and distress until his passing.  His
respiration had dropped to less than three breaths per minute and
his heart rate was highly elevated.  The attending physician, Dr.
Ernesto Pinzon, being a compassionate and caring individual,
bowed to the family's request by injecting the patient with
morphine.  Over a period of time it was felt that the first
injection did not reduce his distress to a tolerable level and he
was injected again.  In addition an injection of Vallium and an
injection of Potasium Chloride were given to enhance the action
of the morphine.  The Vallium was administered to relax the
patient and the Potasium Chloride to enhance the action of the
morphine and to reduce the patients heart rate.
     The patient passed away after forty minutes had gone by.
     Some time later an individual within the staff of the
hospital, not being familiar with the dosages and medications
given, reported the activity to superiors as being of a
suspicious nature.  This has lead to the doctors license
being suspended and the matter being investigated by the
Highlands County Sheriffs office as well as the Grand Jury.
There have been NO criminal charges filed and Dr. Pinzon has
refused to speak to the investigating officer as is his
right.  The Assistant State Attorney, Mr. Steve Houchen, is
presenting such evidence as might exist to the Grand Jury for
determination of any wrong doing.  From close personal
knowledge of this case I can unequivocally state that NO
wrong doing has taken place and no charges of any kind should
be brought by this Grand Jury.  We all know however, that
most anything can happen in a matter of this nature.
     There are MANY items of fact which I'm not able to
speak about at this time since to do so might cause great
harm to the various  procedures  under way.  Suffice it to
say there is no possible way that Dr. Pinzon should be
indicted much less have his license to practice revoked.
     This matter has been given much attention in The Tampa
Tribune which presented a very unbalanced view greatly
lacking in facts.  It seems that negative headlines and
articles sell more copies of this paper than the correct
story would.  The Sebring News Sun has given a much more fair
minded and accurate account of the event.  The stories on
both television channel 13 from Tampa and channel 9 from
Orlando have done nothing short of a hatchet job on Dr.
Pinzon with channel 9 going so far as to label him "Florida's
Doctor Death".  This approach to reporting the news is not
only incomprehensible, it is unpardonable, and our protests
should be long and loud.
     The state Agency for Health Care Administration is
alleging that Dr. Pinzon falsified records and was
unqualified to treat the man.  Nothing could be further from
the truth. They are seeking to revoke his license
permanently.
         A group of people are preparing legislation to prevent
a situation such as this from happening again.  If you feel, as I
do, that Dr. Pinzon is wrongfully being persecuted and would
benefit from your support, please contact Ms. Cheryl Uhrig at
941-385-4325 and ask what you can do to help.
                    Be pain free without fear.
                                   John
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