MOSES LAKE, Wash. — A Moses Lake nurse was sentenced this week to 18 months behind bars for altering morphine medications in order to satisfy her own opioid addiction and putting patients at risk while working as a registered nurse.
According to the U.S. Attorney's Office - Eastern District of Washington, the former 41-years-old nurse, Esther Rae Tuller of Moses Lake, will spend more than a year in prison and three years of supervised release after stealing medications and putting patients at risk.
Tuller was working as a registered nurse at the Confluence Health Clinic in Moses Lake between August 2019 and April 2020 when she reportedly used syringes to remove morphine from at least 17 vials. She then ingested that morphine as part of her own opioid addiction, according to the attorney's office.
Tuller then replaced the morphine with a saline solution that was essentially salt dissolved in water and attempted to glue the caps back onto the vials to make them look intact.
Medications such as morphine are opioid derivatives commonly prescribed by hospitals and health care facilities to relieve pain.
Before Tuller was arrested, a patient in the Moses Lake clinic who was prescribed morphine and got the saline solution instead had to be taken to the emergency room. The patient continued to be in excruciating pain after receiving the saline solution, according to the attorney's office.
“While Ms. Tuller’s addiction to opioids is both tragic and far too common, her decision to take advantage of her access to medical-grade morphine was an egregious breach of trust," U.S. Attorney Vanessa R. Waldref said in a written statement. "It is deeply troubling that she compounded her misconduct by secretly replacing that morphine with saline in vials that she knew would be distributed to patients, recklessly endangering patients who rely on the integrity of our health care system every day.”
Waldref said fostering safe and strong communities in Eastern Washington means addressing the opioid epidemic in all of its forms.
"We will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to hold accountable those who abuse their position of trust and endanger patients," Waldref said.
DOWNLOAD THE KREM SMARTPHONE APP
HOW TO ADD THE KREM+ APP TO YOUR STREAMING DEVICE
ROKU: add the channel from the ROKU store or by searching for KREM in the Channel Store.
Fire TV: search for "KREM" to find the free app to add to your account. Another option for Fire TV is to have the app delivered directly to your Fire TV through Amazon.
To report a typo or grammatical error, please email webspokane@krem.com.
