Posts Tagged ‘ Fentanyl ’

Kristen Parker Sentenced for Fentanyl Theft

January 18th, 2010. By LucyC

About a year ago a woman named Kristen Diane Parker, a surgery tech who worked in hospitals the Denver area, made the news, including on LawyersAndSettlements.com. I wrote a couple of short pieces about her. She was addicted—maybe still is—to Fentanyl.

Also known as Duragesic, Fentanyl is a prescription pain medication—quite a strong one—and quite an addictive one by all accounts. Kristen Parker was so addicted to the stuff that she would steal syringes from hospital surgery carts where she worked—syringes that were filled with Fentanyl—and inject herself. She would then fill the used syringes with saline and replace them. Just in case this isn’t crystal clear—post-operative patients were being administered saline in used syringes instead of their prescribed pain medication.  

Ah, but it gets worse. Parker ended up infecting some 36 people with hepatitis C, a currently incurable viral infection which leads to chronic liver inflammation, and in some cases liver cancer. Parker, who shared needles when injecting heroine, is hepatitis C positive—something she claims she didn’t know when she was fixing her needles.

Thankfully, Ms. Parker got careless, and she got caught. No surprise there, given the state she must Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Fentanyl, Kristen Parker
Posted in Drugs/Medical | 6 Comments »

Fentanyl Theft

June 2nd, 2009. By janem

The potent and addicting drug Fentanyl is in the news again. This time a former nurse from Boulder, CO admitted to stealing the pain med for up to 290 patients in a Boulder hospital and replacing it with tap water or saline solution.  Fentanyl abuse has been known in the health sector since at least 2004.

 

In August 2006 a wave of fentanyl-related overdose deaths made the painkiller headlines as the newest pharmaceutical to hit the streets, and with it came a rising demand. Two nurses fed that demand and both were convicted for illegal possession of fentanyl. (It makes you wonder how many people in the medical profession haven’t been caught.) No wonder fentanyl is the drug of choice: it has been estimated at roughly 100 times more potent than morphine.  Consequently it has also been associated with many overdose deaths. Isn’t it time this drug was removed from the market?

Tags: Fentanyl, Fentanyl Abuse
Posted in Drugs/Medical | No Comments »