Nurse stole painkillers for hospital patients and swapped in saline, feds say
A registered nurse stole liquid painkillers meant for patients in a Michigan hospital’s critical care unit and swapped in saline, according to federal authorities.
Now, the 42-year-old woman has been sentenced to four years in federal prison, according to a May 2 news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Michigan. She pleaded guilty in August to tampering with consumer products, McClatchy News reported at the time.
Her defense attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment from McClatchy News on May 3.
In the government’s sentencing memorandum, prosecutors said the nurse stole vials of hydromorphone medications, an opioid used to treat pain, from at least March through August 2020. The drugs were taken from dispensing machines at the Detroit hospital she worked at, according to the memorandum.
The nurse “stockpiled” the stolen drugs by using a syringe to remove the painkillers from vials, authorities said. She then added saline to the vials, according to the sentencing memorandum.
“Unfortunately, an unsuspecting nurse could not distinguish between a vial that contained hydromorphone and a tampered vial that only contained saline solution,” prosecutors said.
Authorities said the woman stole 116 vials and syringes of hydromorphone and faked records, making it appear as though she and an “unsuspecting colleague” were conducting a controlled count of medications.
“Patients in the critical care unit are often in need of pain medicine for a myriad of reasons, including weaning off ventilatory support, pulmonary dysfunction, cardiac dysfunction, and recovering from surgeries,” prosecutors said. “(This nurse) ignored her duty to adequately treat these patients by placing saline solution in vials that if administered would not relieve the patient’s pain.”
The nurse admitted to using the stolen drugs and being under the influence while working at the hospital, authorities said.
“She was placed in an unenviable position of dealing with the pressure associated with an unprecedented global pandemic. In addition, she was attempting to manage life altering personal issues,” authorities said. “The combination of the pressure from work and her personal life culminated in her using drugs in an effort to relieve the stress.
“While the government empathizes with (her) situation, one cannot ignore the fact that she placed her own personal needs above her duty to her patients,” prosecutors continued. “And she potential jeopardized the career of a fellow nurse while doing so.”
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