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A registered nurse is facing charges for stealing medication from the nursing home she was employed at.
N. S. Soyster, 46, of Martinsburg, turned herself in to Altoona police on Tuesday, Feb. 26, after an investigation by police and the Pennsylvania State Attorney General’s office found that two bottles of liquid morphine intended for two different patients at Hillview Chateau, Altoona, were tampered with.
According to the charges, police were called to Hillview on May 15, 2018, for possible theft of medication. Police took possession of two bottles of liquid morphine, and laboratory tests confirmed they had been tampered with. Both bottles were below the listed 20 mg/ml concentration.
On Feb. 13, Altoona police, along with an agent from the attorney general’s office, questioned employees of Hillview.
During the investigation, officers learned that Soyster, who had since been terminated from Hillview due to a discrepancy with a medical cart, was suspected of taking the morphine.
According to the charges, Soyster was working the overnight shift and at the beginning of her shift, her and another employee inventoried the medicine cart, at which point Soyster took custody of the keys to the cart.
Police noted there were no discrepancies reported after the beginning of shift inventory.
During the next shift change, Soyster and another nurse inventoried the medicine cart, at which point the employee helping Soyster noticed some irregularities with two bottles of morphine.
The employee noticed that the two vials of morphine were different shades of purple and that one appeared to have more liquid in it than it should have.
After the discrepancies were noticed, the other nurse notified the home’s directory of nursing, who requested Soyster provide a urine sample for analysis. Soyster provided the sample which came back with a positive result.
Laboratory testing of the two vials confirmed the bottles were diluted. One vial contained 10.2 mg/ml concentration and the other contained 13.3 mg/ml concentration. Each bottle should have contained 20 mg/ml concentration.
When questioned by investigators on Feb. 19 at her new place of employment, Soyster allegedly said she was confused as to why police were talking to her and had to be reminded about the investigation into the stolen morphine, which Soyster denied doing.
Soyster faces felony and misdemeanor charges of possession of a controlled substance, theft of movable property and receiving stolen property.
After turing herself in, Soyster was freed on $10,000 unsecured bond. A preliminary hearing on the charges is scheduled for March 13, at Central Court, Altoona.