Beaumont Rehabilitation nurse in Westborough gets 4-plus years for tampering with morphine
WORCESTER — A registered nurse at Beaumont Rehabilitation and Skilled Nursing Center at Westborough was sentenced to more than four years in prison for tampering with morphine prescribed to a nursing home resident in her care.
Gwen Rider, 43, of Northborough, was sentenced Thursday in federal court by U.S. Senior District Court Judge Timothy S. Hillman to 52 months in prison and three years of supervised release.
Rider was arrested and indicted in April 2021.
On March 8, 2022, Rider, a registered nurse employed by Beaumont, pleaded guilty to one count of tampering with a consumer product and one count of obtaining a controlled substance by fraud and deception.
During an eight-hour overnight shift in November 2020, Rider was caring for a resident suffering from dementia.
During the shift, she tampered with a bottle of morphine sulfate prescribed to the patient by removing some of the morphine and adding water to the remaining supply, authorities said.
A nurse on a subsequent shift administered the inferior morphine to a patient before the tampering was discovered.
"Our organization is glad the U.S. Attorney's Office is taking this seriously and investigating the matter," Beaumont Rehabilitation said in a statement at the time of the arrest.
This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Nurse at Beaumont Rehabilitation and Skilled Nursing Center gets 4 years
