Guilty at Gunpoint

Guilty at Gunpoint: How the Government Framed Me

This story is written by Doctor Paul Singh, who moved to the United States to get away from the corrupt system in India to make a fresh start where he believed things were fair. You get the feeling at times that the author feels like he’s Alice gone through the looking glass, as he tells his story how he was working as an ob/gyn doctor at his practice in the US when one day there are a couple of agents come in from the FDA saying they just want to ask him a few questions. So his nurse directs them to his office and preps him to meet with them. They have heard about the Intra-Uterine Devices (IUD’S) he’s implanted in female patients as a form of long-term birth control. It seems they are kind of ignorant of how it all works, by the way too, so could he fix them up with a sample of one and provide a crash course on them too?

So Dr. Singh tells them all about the German IUD’s he gets through his Canadian supplier who handles the shipping for him. They are FDA approved here in the US and are as good or better quality. The same weight copper, and best of all, they are about ¼ of the price of the US ones made by big pharma. He gets on a roll and goes on a bit of a rant against the FDA and big Pharma, and how greedy big Pharma is, charging such exorbitant prices that almost none of his patients can afford the US IUD and would have to go without or use other methods if he weren’t able to source the other one through his Canadian contact. Eventually, he notices they aren’t saying a whole lot during his rant. As they are wrapping up, they tell him that they need one of each type of IUD that he is currently using on patients to take back with them. He is also to hold off on doing any more implants until they have tested and approved by the Agency and he gets back to him with word that the imported ones are safe for use. He had to cancel some patients, one a couple of times. But finally, after getting reassurance that the German ones are still ok to use, Singh continues on with his practice.

A couple of weeks later his office and patient rooms are raided with armed agents storming the premises, rifling through his patient files and taking over the computer system after making the IT guy give them the passcode, and began downloading files. Dr. Singh is baffled at this new interruption and attitude. He’s puzzled to see a man from the previous questioning back again when he was told everything was settled. But that agent won’t answer him, and the agent who seems to be in charge keeps yelling at him, asking him questions. Instead, he’s questioned about a patient he saw and it’s insinuated he refused to refused to remove the IUD after the patient requested it.  One thing led to another, and Singh finally realizes that something amiss is going on, but he won’t find out how bad it is for several more months when his entire livelihood, his practice, his home, and even his medical license are at risk.

The worst of it is that the government seems to have pre-stacked the deck against him before he even saw any of this coming on. And just as sad, everyone around him, from the agents to the defense lawyers, act like its just the way things are, no reason to get excited or offended. Like its normal for people to make up evidence against you, or to go to your patients and lie to them about the IUD’s you implanted in them so that they will file complaints, lawsuits and stop using you as a doctor in droves. He was shocked at what the government was doing to him, and you likely will be too. You should check it out. I’m glad I did. My thanks for the advance electronic copy that was provided by NetGalley, author Paul Singh, and the publisher for my fair review.

I truly don’t know how to rate this. It isn’t a “good”book, because the subject is frustrating and infuriating. It is well written, and the narrative is engaging and engrossing.