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Greensboro -- June 4, 2022: United States Attorney Sandra J. Hairston announced today that Emilee Kathryn Poteat, 32, of Danville, Virginia, was sentenced to 54 months in prison for tampering with a consumer product.
The Poteat indictment, which was filed in June 2021, alleges that from July 1, 2020, to October 28, 2020, the defendant tampered with and attempted to tamper with a consumer product that affected interstate commerce, namely three syringes of injectable hydromorphone, with reckless disregard for the risk that another person would be placed in danger of bodily injury and under circumstances demonstrating extreme indifference to such risk (4).
Poteat, a registered nurse, worked as a contract nurse at the Clinical Pre/Post Procedure Unit ("CPPU") at Novant Health Forsyth Medical Center ("NHFMC") in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, from July to November 2020, according to court filings. Poteat was authorized to use the Pyxes machine in the CPPU of NHFMC to dispense prohibited substances, including injectable Hydromorphone, to patients at the direction of prescribing doctors in that role.
A Pyxes machine is a device that stores regulated pharmaceuticals safely and prevents unwanted access to them. Controlled substances are kept in secured drawers that require both a fingerprint and a password to enter before authorized medical personnel can take a controlled substance out. Furthermore, for an actual patient to access prescribed medicines stored in the Pyxes machine, a nurse or other authorized person must enter precise prescription information. Vials of pharmaceuticals housed in the Pyxes machine at NHFMC were kept in container packaging with tamper evident seals and lids on each individual vial.
Poteat opened container packages holding vials of injectable Hydromorphone that were housed in the Pyxes machine in the CPPU at NHFMC from July to November 2020. She then took the vials out of the container packages and opened them, intending to convert and consume the Hydromorphone by injecting it into herself.
Poteat poured saline solution into the vials to disguise her conversion of injectable Hydromorphone and replaced the vial lids with glue after extracting and converting injectable Hydromorphone. Poteat then placed the tampered-with vials, which were filled with saline solution, into the opened container packages, closed and re-sealed the container packages, and then left them in the locked and secured Pyxes machine, knowing that CPPU nurses might administer the compromised and tampered-with injectable Hydromorphone vials to surgical patients in the CPPU at NHFCMC, despite the fact that such vials did not contain the drug and were filled
In addition to her 4-1/2 year prison sentence, Poteat was sentenced to a $3,000 fine and three years of supervised release.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Frank J. Chut, Jr. The United States Food and Drug Administration investigated the case.
Wnctimes by Marjorie Farrington
