A veterinary technician at the University of Minnesota’s equine hospital stole morphine from vials, diluted the painkiller with saline and sealed them back up, charges allege.
As a result, horses treated at the Falcon Heights hospital during a two-week span last summer likely did not receive the pain relief they needed and “therefore, likely experienced unnecessary physical pain,” according to a criminal complaint charging the technician with three felonies.
The 28-year-old, from Circle Pines, was charged Friday in Ramsey County District Court by summons with theft, theft by swindle and procuring a fifth-degree controlled substance. She was placed on administrative leave from her job on Aug. 5 and later fired, the complaint says. She declined a formal interview with law enforcement.
An attorney is not listed in court case file and she was not reached Monday to respond to the allegations.
According to the complaint, hospital staff contacted law enforcement on July 31 after a vet tech and surgeon discovered that a vial of morphine from the hospital’s secure medication dispensing system was empty, even though it appeared unopened. Security caps on other morphine vials appeared to have a glue-like substance on them.
A review of the system’s user transaction reports showed that the Circle Pines woman accessed the morphine drawer 35 times between July 6 and July 21, a number that was significantly higher compared to her peers. No one else accessed the drawer during that time, besides pharmacy staff during three inventory checks, the complaint says.
Meanwhile, hospital records showed she was not assigned to treat patients with morphine during the 15-day timeframe “and therefore, had no reason to be accessing morphine,” the complaint says.
In all but one instance, the records showed, the veterinary technician generically coded her access to the morphine as “Surgery” instead of to a specific patient, which is the common practice. She then later coded them as “Cancelled,” according to the complaint.
The remaining transaction was tied to an equine patient named “Reggie,” who was never prescribed morphine and did not receive it, despite a bill that said otherwise, the complaint continued.
When the investigation began, the dispensing system contained 29 vials of morphine. Last month, the FDA’s Forensic Chemistry Center reported that testing on all of them showed evidence of tampering — punctures and glue on stopper tops — and that the morphine was diluted by approximately 87% to 97%.
During an Aug. 5 interview with hospital administration, the woman denied making the 35 morphine transactions and said someone must have used her unique personal identification number without her knowledge to access the system. Records, however, showed she used her fingerprint to access the system for each of them, the complaint says.
According to the complaint, staff told investigators the woman has a history of painful medical issues that required narcotic pain medications for treatment.
