Medical Treason

In a composite of actual experiences, the story of medical personnel impaired by drug abuse is told in lackluster, plodding prose by a nurse who became embroiled in a dangerous entrapment scenario in an unidentified urban hospital. Strom-Paikin, now in private practice in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., shows nurses and doctors using drugs to cope with their demanding lives, endangering their patients by malfeasance, engaging in criminal trafficking. Elements of the story are collusion in high places, professional denial, even the murder of a colleague. Together with an undercover agent/ doctor with whom she had an affair, Strom-Paikin brought to light a ``conspiracy of silence'' in the medical profession with regard to impaired colleagues. (Apr.)