David Pezzula: this time the pain was too difficult, and he died by suicide on Friday morning, December 6, 2019

David Pezzula will always be remembered for his sharp wit and courage during difficult times. Unfortunately,

this time the pain was too difficult, and David died by suicide on Friday morning, December 6, 2019.

David, 52, was born on May 26, 1967 in Pittsburgh, PA. He was lovingly adopted by Dominic and Dorothy Pezzula, who both preceded him in death. David leaves behind a brother, Daniel Pezzula as well as many nieces and nephews whom he loved very much. He also leaves behind his beloved dog, Cooper, who was his entire world, and SO MANY friends that loved him more than he knew. We will all miss him beyond measure.

David was a prolific writer/blogger and was known for his sarcasm and severe distaste for our current political situation. He was unabashedly honest and a source of constant entertainment to his many friends. He would do anything to help out his fellow man and had a heart of gold. As evidence of his generosity, his final gift was one of organ donation.

At his request, no service will be held.

If you are in crisis, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741741.

15 Responses

  1. I have to clear the air David’s behalf, as a close personal friend. His pain was not physical, his pain was emotional. Unfortunately, this post has taken things out of context and for him, I would like to correct the record. His diagnosis was Bipolar II. He also suffered from suicidal ideation for many years. He was not denied any medications. Unfortunately, due to a severe allergic reaction to Lamictal several years earlier,
    he was not able to find suitable replacement drug therapy. Please do not make him scapegoat for your cause.

    • Steve this article is inappropriate as this gentleman WAS NOT DENIED PAIN CARE and is a false narrative. He was mentally ill and yes pain is pain BUT he was NEVER refused care.

  2. I didn’t know David, never read his comments, but I am so terribly saddened by this news. I just got thru trying to talk someone down on F/B and don’t know if I or anyone else was able to do that. Young, like
    David! It is such a waste and so preventable. Why..how many more of
    us have to sacrifice our lives? Is this the plan? This isn’t the country
    I knew or the drs & nurses in my family who cared for patients and have passed on knew. I can only imagine what they would have thought!

  3. This is so sad! And it didnt have to happen if he had pain medication Im assuming. And if that is the case I hope his family sues his doctors and who ever else denied him of pain medicine!!! This cant be another suicide and have an “oh well” attitude that these Doctors Hospitals have today R.i.P. David My prays an condolences to David’s family

    • I agree with everything you’re saying, but unfortunately the cdc & government doesn’t care. After living in pain for over 15 years, trying multiple surgeries, medications, years of physical therapy, the doctors finally tried a Dugesic patch & within a week, I was walking without pain, able to cook, so laundry, etc. I wasnt completely pain free, but I had so much relief that I could have a life again. After 8 years, the doctor couldn’t prescribe it anymore & said if she’s not able to treat her patients that honestly need the help, she won’t practice anymore so she walked out of the clinic.. I tried other pain specialists & they were all too scared of losing his license so I was basically cut off of the highest dose to nothing. Needless to say, it ruined my life, literally..almost died, almost lost my 8 yr old because I was a single mom & couldn’t get her to school, was bedridden gaining over 30 pounds, my fiancé of 3 years couldn’t handle everything anymore so he packed up & moved out. If it wasn’t for my daughter, I wouldn’t be here now. Every single day I wake up & feel like I’m living in a nightmare that won’t end. I shut the entire world out, and losing the man who was the love of my life since I was 16 years old, was the last for me. None of this should be going on. I have AS, Scoliosis, Fibromyalgia, Deg Disc Disease, Scoliosis, Neuropathy & a Dr gave me steroid injections in his office for pain, but didn’t realize he used a vial that had been recalled, so I was injected with Staph Infection that ate away are my entire spine, some discs are completely gone & fusing together on their own. It took me months laying in a hospital, not able to walk & fighting for my life, months in rehab to learn how to walk again, and then the night I finally was released to go home, the pharmacist refused to fill my script even after she called both of my doctors & they told her to fill it, she then wrote all over the script Do Not Fill Per Dr.. What is going on is completely inhumane, they don’t even do this in third world countries. My friends Dog had surgery & had to give her aspirin all because of the people that abuse opioids as the Vets now are being told not to prescribe pain medication for animals.. My friend was so insulted, she doesn’t even take medication & is healthy, but said it made her feel like an addict. She said she feels so bad for all of us that truly suffer with pain, and the way the government, CDC & how even some of the pharmacists treat us.. I’m so tired of hearing how people can be treated for opioid addiction, yet they make no mention about people who need medication in order to walk or have any quality of life.. They’re not addicts, and shouldn’t be treated that way. That’s the same as saying that if one child ate crayons at school so now nobody can have any crayons because some children might eat them & get sick. They’re punishing everyone because some people are not responsible & abuse medication that other people honestly need. I apologize for the long rant, just so frustrated as I lay here in pain alone on a Saturday night instead of having the love of my life next to me watching tv together, and all because of losing the medication that allowed me to have a life & walk. I just keep praying for a miracle for pain relief as well as praying that he’ll come back some day

    • He DID NOT suffer from physical pain; but, mental pain. He was NOT denied medicine so as asked by his friends and family DO NOT use him as a scapegoat for chronic pain patients cut off of meds.

  4. I am so so sorry David had to go thru the pain of being physically ill, but the pain of being abandoned by his physician. We are being exterminated slowly but surely. My heart breaks, my body would not hold up without the pain medication I take. RIP David…..

  5. Such a sad state of affairs we are in. It’s so sad this young man took his life because of being taken off his meds cold turkey. I hope that dr gets reprimanded.

  6. One more victim. A new statistic for institutionalized untreated pain by withholding opiate Rx therapy by our USA medical professionals. One preventable death and loss to the Pittsburgh PA community by a law abiding citizen.

    Torture continues because of ignorance and big-Pharma greed: more unnecessary suffering imposed on legitimate pain patients because of ignorance. The misguided decision to deny this man Rx opiate meds and alleviate his suffering? Forcing David into cold turkey withdrawal because the CDC “machine” propagandized an intentional data analysis mistake?

    David Pezzula left this wretched world in the prime of his life and became another victim of government intrusion into patient-physician relationship.

    May the Executor of David’s Estate file a lawsuit with successful outcome against co-defendants which include all clinicians failing to treat his legitimate pain with opiate therapy, the CDC (with its biased and unscientific mythology against opioid Rx) and hospitals neglecting their duty of care. Why are American patients are being tortured in the name of junk science, cruelty and political agenda?

    When will this systematic torture harming American patients cease and desist? When will our medical professionals restore standards of care to using Rx opioids with interventional pain management?

    When will the Dark Ages of treating pain end? Where is our health Renaissance?

    • It’s not the doctors. It’s the politicians. If you don’t like what’s going on with denying people access to opiates or making it extremely difficult to get these medications VOTE THE ONES RESPONSIBLE OUT OF OFFICE!!

      • it may come from politicians now, but drs havent exactly been profiles in courage standing up for what is right… its fair to hold them responsible for that. quitting and retiring and passing the buck and abandoning patients is a -very- cowardly and selfish thing to do.. and the vast majority of them are folding like wet towels and doing just that… how many are staying and fighting? how many are defying these stupid policies to defend the vulnerable? really thats a serious question. they took oaths. they work for us. drs used to be brave. we need drs to help us. not abandon us.

        politicians are creating these crazy policies, but they wouldnt get anywhere if drs just refused to comply as a group.. or called them out as stupid as you see it… theres more of you than there are of them. you run everything. you could strike and shut down everything all hospitals all e.r.’s. you could make some noise for the correct practice of your profession. medicine cant be practiced without opiates esp emergency, trauma, surgery, dentistry. it cant be done. there are no real alternatives. drs know this reality, and we need you to get together and stand up for the vulnerable you took an oath to help and serve. dont just pass the buck again. dont just run away and dont look behind
        you.

        people like this continue to unecessarily die, certainly largely because of bad policy, but more immediately becuase not enough actual drs in his life stood up against that policy, who could have made a difference for this person, while he was alive, with actual treatment. think about it. this isnt a criticism of medical people. its hoping you recognise your responsibility and power to help us.
        .

      • Unfortunately some doctors are involved. Because they don’t want to deal with oversight from the CDC/FDA, they are telling patients they don’t have any choice in how they treat patients with chronic pain. That what are actually guidelines given by CDC/FDA are LAWS. They are not laws and the guidelines clearly say that these suggested guidelines are not meant to be applied to chronic pain patients who are already under the care of a physician and already on opioids. What you have are doctors that don’t want to deal with all of the extra steps to correctly document that they are providing correct oversight for prescribing opioid medication to chronic pain patients. It is dangerous, as we are clearly seeing, and CRUEL to take someone off of pain meds that have been working well for these pain patients for years and instead, just letting them suffer until they just can no longer insure the pain. Any doctor found this, and there are many, are violating their hippocratic oath to “First, do NO harm”. They are harming their patients, physically and certainly emotionally. How can any doctor with a conscience allow their patients to suffer so terribly?? And worse yet, if a pain patient ends care with a doctor, who no longer will treat their pain, many times these patients are leaving the practice very upset and angry because that doctor is refusing to give them care with a treatment that has been allowing them to at least live a life with some quality to it. These doctor’s let their egos get in the way and label these patients as “problem” and or “drug seeking” on the patient’s records that are then transferred to the next doctor and upon seeing these notations, won’t see the new pain patient AT ALL. They don’t want to inherit a difficult, drug seeking patient! THIS IS ABDOLUTELY MALPRACTICE! AS PAIN PATIENTS, WE NEED TO UNITE LIKE THE AIDS PATIENTS DID IN THE NINETIES AND GOT THEIR ILLNESS CLASSIFIED AS A DISABILITY, BECAUSE MANY DOCTORS AND DENTISTS WOULD NO LONGER TREAT THEM BECAUSE OF THE AMERICAN DISABILITIES ACT. DOCTORS/DENTIST CAN NO LONGER DENY THEM CARE BECAUSE THEY ARE DISABLED AND AS WE ALL KNOW, MOST OF US ARE DISABLED BY OUR PAIN.

        • intractable non-cancer pain is classified as a medical condition, and was part of my Social Security Disability claim when an administrative law judge ruled on it circa January 2000.

          Our media is an enemy to legitimate intractable and chronic pain patients.

          This is a planned siege against legitimate pain patients, including those persons suffering with cancer. 50 years from now, our grandchildren will look back in horror at how we suffered.

          Never give up!

  7. If there has been so many suicides due to denial of pain care why has not one of the families of them got a lawsuit and or got on the news media talk show anytbing? Why cant someone arrange all these families to get together and do a lawsuit??? Get a major news show?? Talk show??? Anything,???, is noone bothering to reach out to these peoples family???- ridiculous

    • The media appears to be ignoring this horror. Liz Lorente Fox news did a special a year ago. Also George Knapp in 2018. No one is paying attention. It’s almost as if there’s a media blackout. Blake Dodge News Week recently began writing about it. Physicians are retiring from pain management en mass, telling their patients it’s going to get worse.

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