Plainfield nurse charged with using patients' pain medicine
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By Peter Hirschfeld Times Argus Staff - Published: October 21, 2006
BARRE – A Plainfield nurse with a history of drug abuse could spend five years in prison for allegedly ingesting narcotic pain medications intended for nursing home patients under her care.
Margie Yoder, 56, admitted to investigators in August that she had illegally tampered with fentanyl patches affixed to elderly patients at Berlin Health and Rehabilitation Center, according to officials from the Attorney General's Office. She was charged Thursday with two felonies – obtaining a regulated drug by deceit and making false statements – as well as a misdemeanor charge of abuse of a vulnerable adult.
The Vermont Board of Nursing suspended Yoder's license in 1994 after the registered nurse admitted to diverting narcotic pain medication from patients at the Vermont State Hospital. Her license was reinstated in full in 1999, according to affidavits, after she successfully underwent years of drug counseling and testing.
Staff at Berlin Health and Rehabilitation notified investigators in early August that someone had tampered with fentanyl patches prescribed to an elderly patient suffering from chronic pain. Hidden cameras later installed at the facility revealed that Yoder was likely the culprit, and upon questioning, prosecutors say, she admitted to having chewed on used fentanyl patches as well as taking other narcotic pain pills, including the highly addictive Dilaudid and Percocet.
Yoder reportedly told investigators she was "relieved" they discovered her transgressions and that she was again battling a "serious drug addiction." She did not, however, admit to puncturing the patches and removing the fentanyl from them before applying them to her patients, saying she "would not abuse a patient in that manner."
Prosecutors say Yoder indeed punctured the patches before application, a violation they say resulted in discomfort for at least one alleged victim who suffers from a chronic osteopathic condition.
"Ms. Yoder … placed the patch, absent the narcotic, on the resident's person, such that it appeared the resident was receiving the treatment according to prescription," wrote Detective Jefferson Krauss in sworn testimony. "Ms. Yoder did this while knowing … that the absence of the narcotic on the resident's person was likely to cause unnecessary harm, pain or suffering."
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