BOSTON (WHDH) - A Tewksbury woman was indicted on Tuesday by a federal grand jury in Boston on charges she stole morphine while employed as a nurse in the hospice unit at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center campus in Bedford.
Kathleen Noftle, 55, was charged by indictment with one count of tampering with a consumer product and one count of obtaining a controlled substance by misrepresentation, fraud, deception, and subterfuge, United States Attorney Andrew E. Lelling announced. Noftle was arrested and charged by criminal complaint in September.
In January 2017, federal investigators say Noftle used her position as a nurse to obtain doses of morphine that were meant to be given to the veterans under her care in the hospice unit.
Noftle allegedly admitted to federal agents that she mixed water from a sink with a portion of the liquid morphine doses, and then administered the diluted medication to patients orally. She then allegedly ingested a diluted amount of the remaining drug.
One veteran experienced increased difficulty breathing and increased suffering in his final days due to diluted morphine that was administered by Noftle, according to federal investigators.
Before taking a position at the VA medical center, investigators say Noftle had resigned from her position as a nurse at a different hospital after she failed to follow appropriate procedures when wasting narcotics on 60 occasions.
Noftle faces up to 10 years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a fine of up to $250,000.
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