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A judge sentenced a 43-year-old Northborough nurse who admitted to siphoning morphine from a dementia patient who she cared for at a nursing home will spend more than four years in prison, federal authorities said.
Gwen Rider pleaded guilty last year to one count of tampering with a consumer product and one count of obtaining a controlled substance by fraud and deception, the US Attorney for Massachusetts said. A judge this week sentenced her to 52 months in prison and three years of parole.
Rider worked at a Worcester County nursing home and was placed in charge of caring for dementia patients, the federal prosecutor said. According to investigators, Rider siphoned the painkiller morphine from vials of the drug and replaced it with water.
She gave her patients that watered-down drug before another nurse noticed it adulterated mixture, authorities said.
Rider faced up to 10 years in prison.