A registered nurse pled guilty in United States District Court to tampering with vials and syringes of liquid painkiller at the Detroit hospital where she worked. According to court documents, Mary Cheatham, 42, of Ypsilanti, Michigan, a registered nurse who previously was employed in the critical care unit at a hospital in Detroit, Michigan, removed vials and syringes of injectable hydromorphone from the medication dispensing machines, by extracting the hydromorphone using syringes, and then replaced the saline filled vials and syringes into the unit’s medication dispensing machines. Cheatham’s tampering took place between March 2020 and August 2020. Cheatham knew the vials and syringes of hydromorphone were intended to be administered to patients for the purpose of pain relief in the critical care unit of the hospital.
