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Former Nurse Indicted For Stealing Pain Killers

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Nov 19, 2008 6:38 pm US/Mountain

Former Nurse Indicted For Stealing Pain Killers

Reporting
Raj Chohan
BOULDER, Colo. (CBS4) ― A Boulder Community Hospital Nurse accused of stealing pain medications was indicted Wednesday by the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Investigators say Ashton Daigle is accused of stealing more than 50 vials of Fentanyl and replacing the liquid drug with saline solution. It's enough to have been used on an estimated 320 surgical patients.

Fentanyl is many times more powerful than morphine.

The hospital started investigating the case when anesthesiologists noticed surgical patients reacting as if they had not received adequate painkilling drugs.

A hospital spokesperson says Daigle was hired in June and fired last month after admitting to stealing the drugs.

"This incident only occurred during surgery in our main hospital, and these patients were not in pain," Rich Sheehan with the Boulder Community Hospital said. "During surgery the anesthesiologist is constantly evaluating the patient's vital signs and their blood pressure, respiration rate, and if they notice any increase in the level of discomfort they will give more pain killer."

Daigle now faces 108 counts of tampering with a consumer product and 67 counts of creating a counterfeit controlled substance. Each count carries up to 10 years in prison and up to a $250,000 fine.

Boulder Community Hospital has notified hundreds of patients and changed its procedures to prevent this kind of theft from happening again.

(© MMX CBS Television Stations, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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