{"id":12364,"date":"2016-02-10T18:51:44","date_gmt":"2011-02-10T18:51:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.accessrx.com\/blog\/?p=1234"},"modified":"2011-02-10T18:51:44","modified_gmt":"2011-02-10T18:51:44","slug":"nurse-steals-painkiller-surgery-patient-b0210","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.edrugstore.com\/blog\/current-health-news\/nurse-steals-painkiller-surgery-patient-b0210\/","title":{"rendered":"Nurse Allegedly Steals Painkiller from Surgery Patient and Then Watches Him Suffer on Operating Table"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"AYou couldn\u2019t dream up some of the headlines these days.<\/p>\n

Even taking into consideration that a nurse in Minnesota was addicted to pain killers, it is hard to fathom that she would steal more than two thirds of the 500 micrograms of fentanyl\u00a0reserved for a patient who was about to\u00a0undergo surgery to have\u00a0kidney stones removed.<\/p>\n

Fentanyl is considered to be highly addictive because the opium-based medication is about 80 times stronger than morphine. Hospitals use fentanyl for anesthesia because it is powerful and fast-acting.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the skinny\u2026<\/p>\n

\"MinnesotaA male patient at Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis was scheduled to have surgery for kidney-stone removal on Nov. 8 last year. The surgery took place, but it was excruciatingly painful for the patient, who screamed and yelled, and had to be held down by medical staff in order for the procedure to be completed. The procedure involves a tube being inserted through the patient\u2019s back and into one of their kidneys.<\/p>\n

Hospital staff told authorities that, during the surgery, registered nurse Sarah May Casareto acted intoxicated, slurred her speech, stopped attending her patient, fell asleep and also knocked over some medication near the end of the procedure.<\/p>\n

During the surgery, and as the patient was moaning, Casareto told the patient to \u201cGo to your beach\u2026 Go to your happy place.\u201d That was according to a technician who assisted with the procedure. After the surgery, hospital staff found that Casareto\u2019s scrubs contained empty syringes with labels peeled off, which violates hospital policy.<\/p>\n

When approached after the surgery, Casareto resigned instead of submitting to a drug test.<\/p>\n

\"PainkillerThe patient filed a formal complaint with local police on Dec. 4, and an investigation was launched. The complaint states that, before the surgery, Casareto told the patient, \u201cYou’re gonna have to man up here and take some of the pain because we can’t give you a lot of medication.\u201d<\/p>\n

Casareto has been licensed as a nurse in Minnesota since 2006, and there was no record of any disciplinary action taken against her before this incident.<\/p>\n

County Attorney Mike Freeman said the investigation into the incident is not yet complete, and that if Casareto is convicted, prosecutors will seek jail time instead of the probation that is prescribed by sentencing guidelines for the offense.<\/p>\n

Certainly, the powers of addiction can cause people to do some things they would normally not do. It\u2019s just a shame that finding out what other people are truly capable of comes at the expense of innocent victims. And at the expense of everyone else, due to the victim\u2019s slam-dunk lawsuit that will surely bring him a large sum of money.<\/p>\n

Healthcare is costly enough without incidents like this.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You couldn\u2019t dream up some of the headlines these days. Even taking into consideration that a nurse in Minnesota was addicted to pain killers, it is hard to fathom that she would steal more than two thirds of the 500 micrograms of fentanyl\u00a0reserved for a patient who was about to\u00a0undergo surgery to have\u00a0kidney stones removed. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_autoblog_aioseo_focus_keyphrase":"","_autoblog_aioseo_title":"","_autoblog_aioseo_description":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-health-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t