My Conscience Is Killing Me

In his attorney's office, Virgil Opinion—a longtime medical technician for a prominent Newport Beach doctor—uttered a patient's name and then bowed his head and wept. After half a minute, the 42-year-old wiped tears from his eyes, shifted in his seat and stared out the window at the distant Saddleback Mountains. He repeated the patient's name and said, "My conscience has been killing me."

The patient was a gravely ill Costa Mesa man battling AIDS and anemia from hepatitis C treatments. In February, he made an appointment with Dr. G. Steven Kooshian, Opinion's boss. The patient was in line for a liver transplant; badly fatigued, he hoped to make office visits temporarily unnecessary. He wanted a month's supply of Epogen, an expensive drug that helps replenish critical red blood cells. Kooshian assured the patient he would fill the request, according to Opinion.

But there was a problem.

"We don't have a month's supply of Epogen," Opinion remembers reminding the doctor in front of the patient.

"Yes, we do," Kooshian allegedly replied.

The technician says he protested again but was ordered to "go prepare the shots."