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Patient's fentanyl allegedly taken

A Butler Memorial Hospital nurse is accused of stealing a patient's fentanyl for her own use in July.

But the suspect, Rachel Ann Shuster, needed an opiate fix so badly, authorities said, that she couldn't wait to use it.

Once the Connoquenessing woman removed the bag of fentanyl from the chronic pain-suffering patient, she surreptitiously made her way into a hospital restroom.

She connected an intravenous line from the bag to her arm — and apparently overdosed, according to court documents.

It would take the opioid-overdose antidote Narcan to revive her.

The alleged at-work drug theft played out last summer at the Butler hospital.

On Thursday, District Judge William Fullerton arraigned Shuster on a felony count of acquiring or obtaining possession of a controlled substance by misrepresentation or fraud.

She remains free on her own recognizance while awaiting a preliminary hearing Feb. 6.

Her attorney, Ansley Westbrook II of Pittsburgh did not return a telephone call following the court proceedings.

State agent James Embree began his investigation in August, a month after the suspected incident. The hospital's risk manager, Mark Edwards, advised Embree about what happened.

Edwards recounted that Shuster, a registered nurse, had been found “incoherent and possibly overdosed” in a staff restroom near the hospital's intensive care unit about 2 a.m. July 15, documents said.

In her arm, she had an IV attached to a bag of fentanyl, a powerful narcotic many times more potent than heroin.

She was taken to the emergency department and administered the life-saving drug Narcan, which blocks the effects of opioids and reverses an overdose.

She was subsequently transferred to West Penn Hospital for further treatment.

An internal hospital investigation, documents said, determined that Shuster had removed the fentanyl from a patient — identified in court paper as “James E.”

The defendant marked on the patient's record that the drug had been discarded as waste.

Embree on Oct. 21 interviewed Shuster at the state attorney general's regional office in Westmoreland County. Her attorney was present during the interview.

She admitted taking the patient's fentanyl for her personal use, documents said, “due to a battle with addiction.”

During the interview, investigators said, she acknowledged using the drug in the restroom, where she “accidentally overdosed.”

Butler Memorial Hospital spokesman Connie Downs did not return a telephone call this morning.

Shuster's registered nursing license was issued June 7, 2012, and was still active when checked this morning, according to online records from the Pennsylvania Department of State.

The license was last renewed July 26, 2015, and was to expire Oct. 31 of this year.

The online records list no disciplinary actions on her license.

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