Elizabeth Chamblee Burch
THE PAIN BROKERS'
Interactive Reader's Guide
Warning:
Spoilers Ahead
This isn't just a book about a scam. It's about what happens when our legal system treats injured people as profit centers instead of human beings.
​
On a Friday afternoon in November 2013, Sharon Gore answered her phone. The caller knew her name, her birthday, her medical history, and her doctor's name. "You have a ticking time bomb inside you," the voice said. "It's got to be taken out quickly. We'll arrange it all."
​
Sharon was one of more than 100,000 women contacted by a sophisticated criminal enterprise that turned pain into profit—luring victims into unnecessary surgeries, extracting millions from their legal settlements, and leaving them worse off than before.
This guide takes you deeper into the story, organized part by part..
Explore court documents I unearthed over years of research. Watch short videos that break down complex legal concepts. Meet the women who refused to stay silent—and the small-town lawyer who took on the con men when no one else would.
Most importantly, understand why this matters beyond one case: it reveals how our mass tort system has lost sight of the very people it's supposed to protect.
​
As Judge Raymond Dearie said from his Brooklyn courtroom: "Almost as if the patients themselves are mere pawns. Afterthoughts."
​
This guide ensures they're not forgotten.
Prologue
The prologue takes place at the Bellagio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas in October 2015. Readers first meet Vincent, Michael, and Ron. Click on each name to learn more in their own words.
​
Discussion Questions:
-
How does the Vegas setting establish tone for the story?
-
What surprised you about the mass torts industry?
-
Why is Ron Lasorsa a credible whistleblower despite his participation?
PART I: THE PLAYERS AND THE GAME
Part I includes Chapters 1 (Ticking Time Bomb) through 9 (The Rat's Nest).
In this Part, readers:
Meet the three women whose lives were forever changed by a single phone call—Sharon Gore, Barb Shepard, and Jerri Plummer—and the con men who targeted them.
Follow Vincent Chhabra, his son Michael, and partner Ron Lasorsa as they build a massive operation that cold called over 100,000 women through a South Florida call center.
Discover how offshore call centers illegally obtained medical data, how Blake Barber coordinated travel for what were often unnecessary surgeries, and how Dr. Chris Walker was recruited to extract five meshes a day at outpatient centers.
Watch as the future hero of the story, J.R. Baxter, decides to be a tort lawyer in his first year of law school while watching the documentary, Hot Coffee.
The Pain Brokers Origin Story
Sharon Gore
School administrator. Master’s degree. Pillar of her South Carolina community. One phone call changed everything. When the caller knew her name, her birthday, her medical history—every intimate detail—she trusted they were right about the ticking time bomb inside her body. She thought flying to south Florida meant saving her life and that the calls were from the mesh manufacturer.
_edited.jpg)
Barb Shepard
A school bus driver from Claremont, New Hampshire, and mother of two grown boys, she thought she was getting help for her medical device. Instead, she got a plane ticket to Florida and a surgeon she’d never met. The scare tactics worked. The surgery didn’t.
_JPG.jpg)
Jerri Plummer
45-year-old Arkansas grandmother in an abusive marriage. On Medicaid. When her granddaughter overheard a caller claim there was a ticking time bomb in Jerri, she was convinced her granny was about to die. Neither knew Jerri was just a dollar sign in someone else’s empire. “It was the worst mistake of my life,” she says. But she refused to be silenced.
Meet the Women
Meet 1000 Corporate Drive's Occupants & Affiliates
A towering skinhead who DJs as Wezbar, this former paralegal turned middleman convinced women to have mesh removed to jack up their lawsuit values.
Florida cardiologist who allegedly owned Clermont Ambulatory Outpatient Center.
A Minnesota lawyer hustling on the fringes of mass torts who worked with Ron Lasorsa and was Jerri Plummer's first lawyer.
Attorney in Austin, Texas, who had a D.C. Bar card and was a partner alongside Ron and Michael Chhabra in Alpha Law, LLC.
A Jamaica-born urogynecologist who lost his life savings in a Ponzi scheme, he began removing mesh at Clermont Ambulatory Outpatient Center.
A doctor in Ellijay, Georgia who worked with Blake and seemed willing to operate on almost anyone.
Rhett McSweeney's partner in ambition, he likely thought he was joining the big leagues with Vince and Ron.
Attorney in Pensacola, Florida, who was on the pelvic mesh MDL's leadership committee and met with Blake Barber & Dr. Chris Walker.
A well-groomed, dark-haired gentleman who seemed neither remarkable nor dangerous, he removed mesh at Broward Outpatient Clinic.
Personal attorney for Vince Chhabra who was initially listed as Sharon Gore's lawyer.
Attorney in Austin, Texas, who had a D.C. Bar card and was a partner alongside Ron and Michael Chhabra in Alpha Law, LLC.
First mass-tort plaintiff's attorney that Vincent Chhabra affiliated with when creating what would become the call center at 1000 Corporate Dr.
Meet the Heroes
J.R. Baxter
Fresh out of law school, his first big case made him the unlikely champion for women damaged by a nationwide conspiracy. Too young to know he couldn’t win, too stubborn to quit when things got hard, he started with Google searches and ended up with a case that would test everything he thought justice meant.
The Mesh Removal Scheme
