Fake nurse pain meds: A fake nurse has been attempting to get pain medication from patients’ hospital rooms, prompting a police investigation.
SEATTLE—Seattle police are investigating reports that a fake nurse tried to obtain narcotic pain medication from patients’ rooms at Swedish Medical Center.
Police said the suspect still remains at large and they are pursuing leads.
Earlier this month, a patient at Seattle’s Swedish Medical Center told staff that the purported nurse went into his room and started using his pain medicine machine, called a Patient-Controlled Analgesia Pump (PCA), reported Q13 television
The patient asked the nurse what she was doing and she told him she would get the regular nurse before leaving the room.
“When the victim’s real nurse came into the room, she noticed that the victim’s line from his PCA to his body had been cut and that pain medication was dripping on the floor,” police said in a statement obtained by the station. “Pry marks on the PCA were also discovered where the suspect apparently tried to pry open the machine to gain access to the pain medication inside.”
The same woman was spotted on another floor and was looking in patients’ rooms. A hospital staff member questioned her and she told them she was checking on PCA machines.
“At that point the suspect went into another room where there was family present with a patient,” reads the police statement. “The suspect acted as if she was checking the PCA when the alarm went off. As the suspect left the room a family member noticed that there was blood dripping on the floor and saw the lines to the patient’s PCA had been cut.”
The woman was described as white and in her 30s or 40s, reported the Seattle Times. She had shoulder-length blonde hair and had on clothes similar to nurses’ garb.
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer posted a video of the woman, showing her walking through the hospital. She was wearing dark-rimmed glasses.
In another incident, the woman entered another patient’s room and cut a line from the PCA machine. She took around two feet from the machines, likely with some medication left inside.
“She used medical terminology and was confident with her answers to questions from other staff,” said the police report, according to the Post. “She was very comfortable walking into the rooms and went about her business in a normal matter. Security advised that all that was taken was an approx. 2 foot length of tubing from the PCA.
Officers were notified April 17 about the April 13 incidents.
The Seattle Times reported that the hospital says no patients were harmed.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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