#Middlebury #Crime #Punishment #PainDrugs
VETERANS POST
By Freddy Groves
I had to read the sentence three times before I understood that it really did say what I thought it did: A Department of Veterans Affairs nurse stole pain drugs from dying patients and got a slap on the wrist. The name was familiar, and I realized that yes, I’d written about this nurse earlier this year when she pleaded guilty to diverting the drugs. I said at the time that the maximum possible sentence of four years was way too short for the crimes.
Specifically, this nurse would take the pain drugs intended for patients in intensive care and give only a partial dose. She would take the rest of the dose herself and falsify the medical records. She did this to one patient alone 19 times in nine days. She even volunteered to care for a certain patient so she could steal his drugs.
The three drugs in question were hydromorphone (which is two to eight times stronger than morphine), fentanyl (which is 50-100 times more potent than morphine and heroin) and oxycodone – all high-power medications for serious pain. Can you imagine being the patient who needed the pain relief and didn’t get it?
As someone who once had surgery that required morphine afterward for pain control, I can’t imagine the horror of experiencing pain and not getting relief from medication that your doctor has ordered … because the nurse is stealing it.
As I said earlier, four possible years in prison for these crimes would not be enough. But now she’s finally been sentenced, and what did she get for punishment? Two years of probation. And that’s what I had to read three times, because surely it didn’t really say that – except it did. And of that two years, the first six months will be home confinement.
I wish someone would explain to me how hanging out at home for a few months and then being on probation is anywhere near the right punishment for these crimes.
© 2025 King Features Synd., Inc.
