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Outpatient Surgery E-Weekly

Contact Congress Over Drug Shortage Issues

A Kentucky congressman is urging surgical facilities to contact their members of Congress and request that they sign his letter demanding changes to...

N.J. Posts ASC Inspection Reports Online

State and federal inspection reports of New Jersey's ASCs are now available online, giving patients an opportunity to make more informed choices abo...

Are Opioids Necessary?

While it's not always practical, or even possible, to eliminate opioids from your post-op pain management regiment, reducing their use in favor of n...

Archive > December, 2009 Vol. X, No. 12

High on the Job: Drug Abuse Among Surgical Staff

Addicts will stop at nothing to get their hands on the next fix. Here's how you can stay one step ahead of them.

Irene Tsikitas, Associate Editor

It started with a few sips of Demerol left over in ampules after a case. When she got away with recording the leftovers she drank as "waste," recovery room nurse Drea Lynn Gibson, RN, started stealing whole ampules of Demerol for her use from the Plastic Surgery Center in Bellevue, Wash., documenting the medication as being administered to patients. As her addiction worsened and she ramped up her intake to 2 to 3 ampules a day, Ms. Gibson got careless — and then she got caught. She broke open the ampules, consumed their contents and super-glued them back together, replacing the painkiller with saline solution to cover her tracks.

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