A former EMT at Mercy has pleaded guilty to stealing and diluting opioids from ambulances.
James Poole admitted to stealing the drugs when confronted. He says he has been an opioid addict since an ambulance ride in 2018.
Mercy officials first noticed the missing drugs in January, when paramedics at the Mercy Medical Center in Carthage, Mo, noticed what appeared to be puncture wounds in a vial of fentanyl used to give a patient pain-reducing medication.
A Mercy facility in Mount Vernon, Mo, confirmed similar tampering was identified on some of their medication.
In Springfield, Mo, officials at the Mercy Medical Center recorded 26 fentanyl and 43 hydromorphone vials missing. Investigations revealed some of the vial’s contents had been replaced with either a saline or water solution. Federal authorities were contacted the same day.
Mercy conducted a drug test on the same day and Poole tested positive for norfentanyl, an analog of fentanyl.
Poole faces up to 10 years in federal prison without parole.
