Pts doing illegal stuff while in hospital

Published

So, a woman in Pennsylvania is accused of selling heroin from her ICU bed. Seems she had quite the stream of visitors that aroused suspicion.

http://www.aol.com/article/2014/04/23/woman-allegedly-sold-heroin-from-hospital-bed/20873825/?ncid=txtlnkusaolp00000058

I know when I worked inpatient care, we had quite a few that we suspected were supplementing their IV pain drugs with street drugs. We had one regular whose gf would come in and he'd be in a much better mood afterward.

Any interesting stories to share?

One summer we had a guy admitted for endocarditis (imagine that) who had a great big fat honking central line in for his BID antibiotics. He'd wake up, have breakfast, get his 0800 dose, and go out of the hospital for the day. Came back in time for dinner and his 2000 dose, so I suppose that technically the illegal stuff wasn't while he was IN the hospital... What a great access port for whatever else he was putting in there, huh? We tried to explain why it wasn't any cleaner than shooting into the veins in his arms or feet or penile shaft (yep) in terms of the endocarditis, but he didn't really care.

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Specializes in Trauma, Teaching.

Had a younger woman sneak out to the parking lot and get heroin from her boyfriend; brought the spoon and coke can to cook with back to her room. My student caught her, reported it, security arrived and searched the room, confiscated everything, police report, you name it.

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Specializes in med surg.

Have had one try to have his GF sneak some herion by having her place it in mcdonalds cheese burger. Well needless to say he was not happy when he got his food only to find a cheese burger bc we found the drugs. Yup he put on his call light to say. Something is wrong with my Burger and all I had to say was. Guess u did not get what u wanted and walked out. Lol lol

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Specializes in Emergency & Trauma/Adult ICU.
The local park is the local pharmacy. Don't like the prescribed medications and/or want to augment your regimen? Wheel, waddle or hobble on over!

I can't get too more explicit otherwise you might figure it out.

Inner city living!

Clearly, you work in my 'hood.

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Specializes in Pediatric Cardiology.

We found a patient smoking marijuana in his bathroom.

We had another patient that was found with heroin in her room, went out front and bought it. Apparently you can buy drugs outside our hospital!

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Specializes in burn ICU, SICU, ER, Trauma Rapid Response.

I haven't had any patient actualy deal drugs from their room, that I know of. I did once have a young female patient in a VA hospital who, for a small fee, would "service" male patients in the bushes near the patient smoke shack.

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Specializes in Pediatrics, Emergency, Trauma.
I have to say I don't believe I've run across a patient dealing drugs from their rooms, but I've been around a few that I'm pretty sure they've had their dealer come in and visit them (one being yesterday even). Of course they deny it, and I haven't found said drugs, but there have been some suspicious "visits".

After a "suspicious" visit at my facility, one of the residents was found OD'd; heroin was the drug of choice...

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Specializes in Family Nurse Practitioner.

Ha yeah, just had a patient who smokes weed everyday. Asked the CN what I should do if he decided to smoke at the hospital..."call security" she said.

There was a 50 something y.o. woman who coded and died soon after admission. The techs said they found some unmarked pills in the drawer that were not there when she was admitted and showed up after family/friends came to visit her.

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When I was doing my ICU rotation in nursing school, I had a pt admitted for endocarditis s/t IV heroin use. He had already had two valve replacements and and was back in after a PE from reinfection of one of the new valves. He had previously been sent home with a PICC, but they had to remove it after he was discovered using it for his drug habit. He was in clear withdrawal and begging for IV meds. He got so desperate that he pocketed his PO hydrocodone in his cheek, spit it out, crushed it up mixed it with old water from a cup, and dug a used syringe from the trash so he could put it in his central line. We caught him as he was trying to mix it all together.

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Specializes in Public Health.

Had a pt last week that apparently coded due to drug overdose while in his L2K room. SMH

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Specializes in ED.

We have a regular pt. Type one diabetic that makes no attempt to control her illness and also abuses drugs. One time she was admitted for DKA and had a central line in place. Wrote a note to her nurse that she stepped outside to smoke. Hadn't seen her for awhile so went outside to find her, found her IV pole hidden in the bushes. About that time a car rolls up and she stumbles out, gorked out of her mind. Admits to going off campus to shoot up heroin through central line. MD informed, comes in, pulls her line and tells her to get the hell out, dropped her as a pt. That was kind of awesome but didn't stop her. Few years later she purposely OD'd on a bunch of narcs and told her kid to call 911 if she didn't wake up. Ended up on a trach, declared brain dead, but a month later was running down the hall of my ER naked, punching a nurse in the process. Some of these people are like ******* cockroaches.

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Specializes in Emergency/Trauma/Critical Care Nursing.
We have a regular pt. Type one diabetic that makes no attempt to control her illness and also abuses drugs. One time she was admitted for DKA and had a central line in place. Wrote a note to her nurse that she stepped outside to smoke. Hadn't seen her for awhile so went outside to find her, found her IV pole hidden in the bushes. About that time a car rolls up and she stumbles out, gorked out of her mind. Admits to going off campus to shoot up heroin through central line. MD informed, comes in, pulls her line and tells her to get the hell out, dropped her as a pt. That was kind of awesome but didn't stop her. Few years later she purposely OD'd on a bunch of narcs and told her kid to call 911 if she didn't wake up. Ended up on a trach, declared brain dead, but a month later was running down the hall of my ER naked, punching a nurse in the process. Some of these people are like ******* cockroaches.

Whoever declared her brain dead needs to re-review the criteria, that kind if inconsistency is what led to the whole Jahi Mcmath debacle.

But I agree with the cockroach theory, didn't mean to hijack your post! :)

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