Doctor in gun over Ozzy's medication

By ANDREW GUMBEL AND ROBIN STUMMER in Los Angeles

As veteran rocker-turned-TV-anti-hero Ozzy Osbourne begins a long fight back to health after a quad bike accident it emerges that a doctor who treated him for addiction to prescription drugs is under investigation.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Dr David Kipper, a specialist in the treatment of narcotics addiction who counts several stars among his clients, appears to have administered the singer with a total of 13,000 doses of more than 30 different drugs over the course of a year at secret so-called "hotel detox" sessions in the United States.

Speaking to the Los Angeles Times shortly before the accident last week, Osbourne, aged 55, said the doctor gave him tranquillisers, amphetamines, opiates, anti-depressants and a powerful anti-psychotic drug usually prescribed for schizophrenia.

Osbourne had sought treatment to help him cope with the media glare of the TV show The Osbournes, and after his wife Sharon's diagnosis of colon cancer.

"I was wiped out on pills," he told the LA Times. "I couldn't talk. I couldn't walk. I could barely stand up. I was lumbering about like the hunchback of Notre Dame.

"It got to the point where I was scared to close my eyes at night - afraid I might not wake up."

The singer's bumbling, stumbling, stupefied manner is one of the most notable features of the hit reality MTV show The Osbournes.

Osbourne says he fired Kipper in September, but not before having paid several hundred thousand dollars for the treatment.

Not only was treatment extremely expensive, but consultations were carried out in private, away from clinics and hospitals.

So-called "hotel detoxes" have become a favourite of celebrities in the US - consultations are done anonymously in luxury suites, far from prying eyes and media-savvy rehab clinics.

The man credited with popularising "hotel detoxes" is Dr Robert Freemont, who in the 1980s began to book drug-addicted celebrities into suites at top Beverly Hills hotels for treatment.

Rock singer Kurt Cobain underwent at least two "hotel detoxes" for his heroin habit before committing suicide in 1994.

It is against California state law to treat addiction outside the confines of a hospital or approved clinic. Freemont was charged with gross negligence and unprofessional conduct by the Medical Board, but died before the case could be pursued.

Kipper was first investigated five years ago after another piece in the LA Times quoted him as admitting to using one hotel, the Peninsula, as a de facto rehab clinic. No disciplinary action was taken.

Last month, California's Medical Board lodged a formal complaint against the doctor, accusing him of operating an unlicensed detox programme, improperly using the synthetic opiate buprenorphine for addiction treatment, and overprescribing habit-forming drugs to eight patients from 1999 to 2002. (The other seven have not been named.)

However, some Hollywood stars defend Kipper. Danny DeVito says the doctor is "the most honest, caring, selfless, responsible doctor" that he and his actress wife, Rhea Perlman, have ever had.

Kipper's lawyer has described the allegations as "inaccurate, incomplete, or false".

At Wexham Park Hospital in Berkshire, where Osbourne was taken after his accident, Sharon Osbourne yesterday quashed rumours that her husband's injuries could end his recording career.

"There's no damage to his vocal cords and he will be up and singing very soon," she said.

Sharon Osbourne shed more light on her husband's accident. "He went over on uneven ground and the bike tipped and landed on his chest," she said, confirming that one of Osbourne's security guards had quite possibly saved his life by giving him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

"He knows we love him very much," she said of the guard.

The star suffered a fractured vertebra, a broken collarbone and eight fractured ribs. Yesterday Osbourne was still on a ventilator, but doctors hope to gradually allow him to resume breathing unaided.

- INDEPENDENT