Here's a story that hit the wires today about just how fuvcked up the local medical profession is here in the Twin Cities:
Nurse tells patient before surgery to 'man up' after taking his medication for herself, according to complaint
Nurse tells patient before surgery to 'man up' after taking his medication for herself, according to complaint - TwinCities.com
Nurse tells patient before surgery to 'man up' after taking his medication for herself, according to complaint
By Tad Vezner
tvezner@pioneerpress.com
Updated: 02/09/2011 10:05:19 PM CST
Sarah May Casareto, 33, of Forest Lake, was charged Wednesday with one count of theft of a controlled substance, a felony. (Photo courtesy of the Hennepin County Sheriff's Dept., via WCCO-TV)
When you're having your kidney stones removed, it helps to have a little something for the pain.
Instead, a patient at Minneapolis's Abbott Northwestern Hospital was told by a nurse to "man up here and take some of the pain" while the nurse shot up with some of his medication herself, according to a criminal complaint filed Thursday.
During the subsequent procedure, the patient felt pain on a level of "nine out of ten... enough to just about bring (the patient) off the table," the complaint added.
While the patient was "screaming and moaning," the nurse — described by colleagues both as "bubbly" and "falling asleep" — told him to "go to your beach... go to your happy place."
She resigned that same day after being confronted by suspicious colleagues, and was later arrested.
Sarah May Casareto, 33, of Forest Lake, was charged Thursday in Hennepin County Court with theft of a controlled substance, a felony.
Casareto could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
According to the complaint, an Abbott doctor assured the patient — identified in the complaint only as L.V.K. — on the day of his Nov. 8 surgery that he "would not feel pain during the surgery."
Later, nurse Casareto walked up.
Casareto had signed out 500 micrograms of Fentanyl, a controlled pain reliever, the complaint said. But she told the patient, "you're gonna have to man up here and take some of the pain because we can't give you a lot of medication,
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you're going straight into surgery." Go straight into surgery he did — and by the time it was all over, L.V.K. received just 150 micrograms of the powerful pain killer. He later told Minneapolis police he had "never felt pain so severe," that someone leaned on his back to hold him down and he heard an assistant ask the doctor whether he should be restrained.
The doctor, identified only as "S.I.", later told police that L.V.K. acted "unusual" as an incision was made into his back and "an instrument placed into the kidney."
Nurse Casareto acted suspicious throughout the procedure, multiple colleagues told police.
The doctor described Casareto as "distracted," "disoriented," and at one point saw her "knock medication to the floor." A nurse manager — called to the scene by a suspicious technician — said Casareto was "facing away from the patient and not attending to him," dropped a syringe, and was "slow" and "bubbly." A technician also saw Casareto flush her eyes — red "from swimming," the nurse said — with a syringe. After that, the nurse used "grand gestures," spoke very loudly, and couldn't place EKG leads or a blood pressure cuff on the patient, the technician told police.
The technician later told police she "had never seen a patient in as much pain." She refused to sign a medication sheet after she and Casareto argued over the medication count, and two empty, unlabeled syringes were found in the nurse's pockets.
The sheet showed that L.V.K. had been given 150 micrograms, 300 had been "wasted" — and 50 micrograms were unaccounted for, the complaint said. It was not clear from the complaint how, exactly, the medication had been "wasted."
After the nursing manager went to human resources to make a report, they paged Casareto. She showed up appearing "intoxicated," slurring her speech and rocking back and forth. They found four more empty syringes in the pockets of her scrubs, which the nursing manager told police she believed, based on a partial label, "had been Fentanyl syringes."
Casareto resigned after refusing to take a drug test.
She has an appearance today in Hennepin County District Court.
The nurse later told police she had once been dependant on pain medication, having once been prescribed Percocet, Vicodin, and Suboxone. The police investigator then called several prior prescribers, and "learned (Casareto) was identified as exhibiting drug seeking behavior."
The investigator stated in the complaint that they believed Casareto "intentionally took and used Fentanyl intended for L.V.K."
In response to the complaint, the hospital issued a brief written statement: "Due to confidentiality we cannot discuss current or former employees. She no longer works at Abbott Northwestern Hospital. Patient safety is our primary concern."
If convicted, Casareto faces up to 10 years in prison.
Twenty years would be preferable.
