An x-ray technologist at Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington, DC, may have used contaminated needles to siphon off painkiller intended for patients, according to an article published February 24 in The Washington Post. While hospital officials say there is no evidence that patients were harmed when the employee allegedly replaced the painkiller fentanyl with saline solution, they have called for 294 former patients to be tested for HIV and other infectious diseases as a precautionary measure.
The employee, Jeffrey L. Royal, 40, was arraigned February 22 in federal court on a charge of tampering with consumer products, according to the article. The felony charge carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, with penalties that increase in the event of serious injury or death.
Royal had worked at the center for five months before his arrest February 2. He allegedly stole the painkiller during radiology procedures using "sleight-of-hand" techniques, medical center officials said.
Court documents say a nurse and a clinical manager caught Royal using a syringe to siphon a sedated patient's painkiller from a medication pump, and that Royal was carrying two syringes containing fentanyl in his shirt pocket at the time. Royal confessed on videotape to removing liquid fentanyl, and another drug, Versed, from medical dispensing pumps and intravenous lines, according to a court affidavit provided by Washington, DC police, the Post article said.
Royal's attorney, Jeffrey B. O'Toole, has declined to discuss the criminal charges, but said patients were never put at risk. Royal has worked as a licensed Maryland radiologic technologist since 1993 without previous incident or complaint.
Washington, DC, Health Department officials said they tried to interview Royal to find out more about the techniques he allegedly used to steal the addictive painkillers, but Royal has declined to answer further questions, the newspaper article stated. They fear he may have used old syringes recovered from an infectious waste container to remove drugs from IV lines and replace them with the saline solution. The officials said it was not clear whether Royal used the syringes to inject himself, or to administer the phony saline doses, the article said.
Several patients contacted for testing have expressed outrage over the incident, first over having to endure major surgery without the necessary amount of painkiller, and second upon learning they may have been exposed to HIV or other infectious diseases in the process.
"For six straight hours I screamed bloody murder because I felt like I was being stabbed to death," said cancer patient Carolyn Datlaw, recalling the pain she felt upon waking from surgery last November. She recently learned that painkiller may have been stolen from her IV, and that the thief may have used a contaminated syringe to steal it, Post reporter Avram Goldstein wrote.
The incident has focused renewed attention on the problem of substance abuse among healthcare professionals, and on the policies of the medical center itself, which has not adopted pre-employment drug screening, according to the article.
By Eric BarnesAuntMinnie.com staff writer
February 29, 2000
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