MINNEAPOLIS (Reuters) - A nurse anesthetist was charged on Wednesday with theft of a controlled substance for allegedly stealing painkillers from a patient at a Minneapolis hospital, leaving him to suffer through a surgery to remove kidney stones.
Sarah Casareto, 33, who told police she was dependent on pain medication, took fentanyl intended for a patient at Abbott Northwestern Hospital last November, according to a felony complaint filed in Hennepin County District Court.
Just after the patient was prepared for surgery, Casareto told him, "You're gonna have to man up here and take some of the pain because we can't give you a lot of medication, you're going straight into surgery," the complaint stated.
The doctor who performed the surgery told police the patient suffered an unusual amount of pain and Casareto had appeared disoriented and distracted during the surgery and knocked medication to the floor near the end of the procedure.
A technician told police Casareto could not stay awake during the surgery while the patient was "screaming and moaning" and the patient told investigators that it felt as though there were "very long needles going through my skin and down into my kidney," the complaint stated.
A nurse manager confronted Casareto after the surgery. She refused to take a drug test and ultimately resigned.
(Reporting by David Bailey. Editing by Peter Bohan)
