An intensive care unit nurse who stole fentanyl and morphine, both pain medications, from an unconscious patient by withdrawing the drugs from his IV line while he was in the hospital’s intensive care unit in December 2018 was sentenced to four months in federal prison and fined $5500. She must also serve a 1-year term of supervised release after the prison term. Kelly Kristin Postel, age 43, from Anamosa, Iowa, received the prison term after a February 4, 2020 guilty plea to two counts of acquiring morphine and fentanyl on multiple occasions from October 2018 through December 2018. In a plea agreement, Postel admitted that between October 2018 and December 2018, she obtained fentanyl and morphine by getting an excess amount of those pain meds from the hospital pharmacy and administering only the prescribed amount of medication to patients. She then used the rest of the pain medication while she was still working as a registered nurse caring for patients in the hospital. Postel also admitted that, on December 10, 2018, she was caring for patients in the intensive care unit at a Cedar Rapids, Iowa, hospital. On that day she went into an unconscious patient’s room, used a syringe to remove fentanyl and another drug from the patient’s IV line, and then used the substances in the employee restroom at the hospital while she was still on duty. Postel admitted she was impaired in her judgment and in being able to do routine nursing tasks after taking the pain medications, even though she was still caring for patients.
