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Victor Van Cleave appeared in court to face two criminal counts, the U.S. attorney’s office in Des Moines announced. One count charges Van Cleave with tampering with consumer products. The other count charges him with obtaining fentanyl by misrepresentation, fraud, deception and subterfuge.
Van Cleave was a pharmacy technician at Iowa Methodist Medical Center who was accused in 2016 of stealing fentanyl and other powerful painkillers. Many of the medications were to be used for patients undergoing surgery or giving birth.
Van Cleave allegedly used a syringe to remove the liquid medications from vials, then replaced them with sterile water. Other hospital staff members, unaware of the thefts, then tried to treat patients’ pain with the water. Patients have said the lack of medication left them suffering excruciating pain.
One of those patients expressed relief Wednesday that Van Cleave had finally been charged and could face prison if convicted. “I think that’s great. I hope he does time. He needs to,” said Nancy Burton, who went to Iowa Methodist for treatment of excruciating kidney stones. She wondered at the time why the medication she was given didn’t ease her pain. Now she knows she was given water instead of fentanyl, because of Van Cleave’s actions. “He messed with me physically and mentally,” she said.
Burton, who lives in Des Moines and is suing the hospital, said she didn’t understand why it took so long for authorities to file criminal charges. As months ticked by, she worried he would never be indicted.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin VanderSchel said Van Cleave could face up to 14 years in prison and $500,000 in fines if convicted of the charges. He was released on his promise to appear for future court hearings. His lawyer, Jake Feuerhelm, declined comment on the case. A trial was tentatively set for Dec. 4.
Van Cleave relinquished his state license in a March 7 settlement with the Iowa Board of Pharmacy. The settlement documents say he stole 252 vials of fentanyl and 18 vials of hydromorphone. He signed the documents, which say, “Respondent admits the allegations.”
Iowa Methodist Medical Center fired Van Cleave shortly after the thefts were discovered in October 2016. Hospital leaders put out a public notice about the situation, and reported it to police.
Iowa Methodist faces several lawsuits from former patients who say they suffered needless pain because of the theft of their painkillers. Courtney Rowley, a lawyer for several of the former patients, said a press conference last February that hospital administrators should have noticed the missing medications more quickly. “This was a systematic failure, an institutional failure, a failure to people who trusted this medical institution,” Rowley said.
Dusty Chapline, a Des Moines police officer who is a plaintiff in one of the lawsuits, said at the press conference that she gave birth to her first daughter at the hospital on Sept. 22, 2016. Chapline had to receive a second epidural during her 16 hours of labor after the first was ineffective, causing some of the “worst pain I’ve ever felt in my life,” she told reporters. “It was horrible,” she said. “I told my husband that I didn’t want to have another kid.”
Hospital leaders have defended their response to the situation, but they have declined further comment.
After the thefts were discovered, the hospital urged as many as 731 patients who were affected to get tested for HIV and hepatitis C because syringes were used in the thefts. The pharmacy technician agreed to be tested for infectious diseases and was negative, Varcoe said.
But two of the former patients listed in a February lawsuit said that they tested positive for hepatitis C after receiving care at Iowa Methodist Medical Center while the thefts where going on. The virus, which can be spread through dirty needles, is a liver infection that develops into a lifelong ailment for most people who contract it and can ultimately lead to liver failure and cancer.