NURSE ACCUSED OF THEFT OF MORPHINE PATCHES

A nurse with self-avowed drug addictions who was free on bond on
charges that she tried to pass a forged prescription is being held in
the County Jail for allegedly stealing medication patches from a
cancer patient at a nursing home where she formerly worked.

Carol A. Smith is being held in lieu of $50,000 bail for allegedly
returning to the nursing home twice after she lost her job there and
peeling morphine medication patches off the back of an 88-year-old
woman.

The first time Smith entered the patient's room and took a patch from
her back, the woman was using the bathroom, according to a criminal
complaint. Three days later, according to the complaint, Smith slipped
into the woman's room while she was on her back, rolled her onto her
side, and plucked another morphine patch from her back before
departing as the patient lay screaming.

The patient was too frail to come to court and testify at a
preliminary hearing last week.

According to Circuit Court records, Smith was fired from the nursing
home job and another health care position for suspected prescription
drug problems.

The unusual charges closely mirror allegations against a former
physical therapist charged with entering two area nursing homes and
peeling transdermal patches from patients in a bizarre routine that
had puzzled police and health care officials for several weeks until
she was charged in November.

David Weissman, a physician who is director of palliative care pain
treatment at the Medical College of Wisconsin, says there is nothing
new about professionals in health care stealing medication.

"As long as people have been doing this, providing health care, health
care workers have been diverting drugs to the illicit market, either
for their own use or for sale," Weissman said.

That's not to say that Weissman isn't surprised by the allegations.
Pain-relieving patches have been in use for the past five years,
Weissman said, but the allegations against the two women were the
first such cases he had seen. Not all transdermal patches contain
medication to counter pain.

The most significant thing about medication theft cases, he said, "is
that it says a lot about the power of an addiction, that people would
go to this kind of length for an addiction. It's incredible."

A prosecutor was so concerned about Smith's alleged actions that he
charged her with eight felonies. Smith, 40, of Waterford, was charged
with two counts each of theft from person, burglary, possession of a
narcotic and bail jumping, charges that carry prison terms totaling up
to 32 years.

In the other case, former therapist Laura Jean Smith, 30, of St.
Francis was charged in November with obtaining a controlled substance
by deception, a felony that carries a prison term of up to four
years. The two Smiths are not related.

The criminal complaint against Laura Smith says she is suspected of
stealing "numerous" medication patches from patients at one of the
facilities so many that the West Allis nursing home Villa Clement
discontinued using the patches in an attempt to thwart the unknown
thief.

That criminal complaint says that the prescription-patch thief
appeared in patients' rooms without invitation, acting like a nursing
assistant and removing the transdermal medication before
disappearing.

At the time of her alleged crimes, Laura Smith was on probation for
attempting to obtain prescription pain-relievers with a blank
prescription pad she had found in the hospital where she worked as a
physical therapist.

That offense occurred just one month after she had been sentenced in
an earlier case for obtaining pain-relievers with a blank prescription
pad stolen from a physician's office.

Carol Smith was placed on two years' probation in December 1994 for a
misdemeanor conviction of attempting to obtain a controlled substance
by misrepresentation.

In that case, Smith admitted passing eight forged prescriptions for
morphine using the forged signature of a physician from St. Francis
Hospital, where Smith had formerly worked, according to court records.

In November, Carol Smith was charged with a felony count for allegedly
trying to pass two forged prescriptions for morphine at a West Allis
pharmacy.

That complaint says those prescription forms were stolen from the
Milwaukee allergy center where she then worked.

Smith was free on a personal recognizance bond in that case when she
was arrested Jan. 18 for allegedly stealing the morphine patches from
the cancer patient at River Hills South Health Care Center, 2730 W.
Ramsey Ave.

The complaint in that case says that Carol Smith, who was fired by the
facility last August and told "not to step foot on the premises again
. . . for any reason," was "suspected of taking drug patches and other
medications during the years" she worked at the home. Weissman said
morphine patches are convenient and particularly useful for patients
with chronic pain because they provide a uniform stream of
medication for several days.

Weissman said "it's hard to say" whether patch thefts are a growing
problem.

"You can't plug all the holes. It's the nature of the beast," he
said.