Nurse’s morphine thefts left Washington patient in ‘excruciating pain,’ feds say
A Washington registered nurse accused of replacing morphine with saline solution pleaded guilty to a medication tampering charge, federal officials said.
Esther Rae Tuller, 40, pleaded guilty to tampering with morphine medication on Dec. 2, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of Washington.
From August 2019 to April 2020, Tuller is accused of ingesting morphine from 17 vials “as part of her own opioid addiction,” then replacing the contents of four-milliliter vials with a saline solution at Confluence Health Clinic in Moses Lake, charging documents show.
She then glued the lids back on the containers, documents show.
Saline is made up of salt and water.
Tuller’s attorneys did not immediately respond to McClatchy News’ request for comment.
The substitution left one patient in “excruciating pain” when they were sent to an emergency room and given the saline solution instead of morphine, the news release says.
“While Ms. Tuller’s addiction to opioids is both tragic and far too common, her decision to take advantage of her access to medical-grade morphine was an egregious breach of trust,” U.S. Attorney Vanessa R. Waldref said in the release. “She recklessly and seriously endangered the safety of patients who rely on the judgment and integrity of health care professionals every day.”
Tuller will be sentenced on March 17 at 2:30 p.m. at the Washington Eastern District Court in Spokane.
She faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release, the news release states.
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