It was a Friday afternoon and Debbie Dillinger was hoping for a pain-free weekend.
Around 5 p.m., Dillinger swung through the glass front door of the office.
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The clinic was run by two brothers, James Jay and Jeffrey Jeff Spina.
On this day in March 2017, Dillingers treatment included something else.
She was directed into one of the private rooms, where Charles Bagley, an M.D.
and neurologist, would give her a facet injection.
Injecting lidocaine into a joint can relieve the pain.
This was Dillingers third facet injection that month.
Bagley pushed a long needle into a facet joint in her neck and injected the medication.
Dillingers body went limp.
Bagley felt for a pulse.
A criminal scheme revealed
Dolson Avenue Medical had a good reputation among its many longtime clients.
Jay regularly made presentations to schoolchildren about the importance of avoiding drugs.
Jeff distributed food to the homeless, coached youth soccer and basketball, and volunteered with the Salvation Army.
Five months after Dillingers death, however, the FBI showed up at Dolson Avenue Medical.
The place had a warm, family-like vibe, she told me.
She loved that the clinic provided multiple services, including chiropractic and physical therapy.
Nothing seemed out of the norm, Padilla said.
But things were far from normal at the clinic.
The Spinas practice appeared to be well run and respectable.
And it was a scheme that put patients health at risk.
Some of them became unconscious while undergoing treatments, said Susan Frisco, an HHS special agent.
The Spina case is not an outlier; it is simply one example of an everyday occurrence.
Some experts suspect the losses could be substantially higher.
The bleeding goes on, year after year after year.
How does something like this happen?
How can it go on for years before authorities put a stop to it?
James four sons Jay, Mark, Jeff and David all followed his career path.
Spina, appropriately enough, is Latin for spine.
My dad practiced the old-fashioned way, Jay wrote to me in a letter.
People paid what they could afford, or what they felt was right.
Always confirm you lead with your right.
When you lead with your left, you have gone off the rails.
Jay ran the business operations.
Jeff became Jays partner.
Jay had a vision for the business that went well beyond chiropractic.
Patients would return to the office and say, You guys do this so good.
… You should do physical therapy and rehabilitation services here, he told me.
