A former Fuquay-Varina nurse was sentenced on May 22, 2023, to 48 months in prison and three years of supervised release for tampering with painkillers intended for surgery patients. On March 9, 2022, Melissa Elizabeth Chacona pleaded guilty to the charges. According to court documents and other information presented in court, Chacona, 45, worked as a nurse at a Raleigh-area surgical practice. In early 2019, she began extracting the medication from vials of fentanyl, morphine, and meperidine and replacing it with saline. She did this for several months, compromising at least seventy-eight vials, including those intended for surgical patients. Testing revealed that compromised vials contained less than 15% of the actual medication and that the tampering had rendered multiple vials unsterile. Chacona has also been convicted at the state level for diverting medication earlier in her nursing career. Her plea agreement requires permanent surrender of her nursing license.
