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A former Des Moines hospital worker who admitted stealing painkillers from hundreds of patients pleaded guilty Monday to tampering with consumer products.
Victor Van Cleave, 29, appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Celeste Bremer on Monday afternoon and entered his guilty plea to the charge. In exchange, prosecutors will drop a charge of obtaining fentanyl by misrepresentation, fraud, deception and subterfuge when Van Cleave is sentenced July 10.
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 admitted to using 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.
He admitted to acting with “reckless disregard” and “extreme indifference” to the risks his actions posed to others.
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.
Several lawsuits were filed against Iowa Methodist by 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 during a February 2017 news conference 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.