From the BizJournal.com
A former Buffalo registered nurse has been arrested for fraudulently obtaining a controlled substance.
While working at Sisters of Charity Hospital in Buffalo, Leyla Samadi, formerly of Buffalo, allegedly tampered with pain medications Demerol and Hydromorphone from November 2014 until early January of this year, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. She moved since leaving that job and was arrested Tuesday at her home in Germantown, Maryland.
Samadi is charged with injecting herself with pain medications instead of administering them to patients.
After dispensing the medication using her username and fingerprint scan, Samadi took it to the patient, scanned the patient’s wristband and the medication, but never gave the patient the narcotic, according to the complaint. She then allegedly replaced the missing medication with saline solution, returned it to the Pyxis machine and then canceled the transaction claiming that she had selected the wrong medication or wrong patient.
Samadi will make an initial appearance in the District of Maryland before being returned to the Western District of New York for prosecution. The charge carries a maximum penalty of four years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Assistant U.S. Attorney George Burgasser is handling the case. The arrest was aided by the Food and Drug Administration and the New York State Department of Health, Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement, along with the New York State Office of the Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit.