Nurse at VA medical center allegedly took morphine meant for dying veterans

BEDFORD, Mass. (WXIN) -- A former hospice nurse is accused of diverting morphine from veterans at the Veterans Affairs (VA) medical center campus in Bedford, Massachusetts, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.

Kathleen Noftle, 55, of Tewksbury, was arrested Wednesday morning and charged in Boston federal court with one count of obtaining a controlled substance by misrepresentation, fraud, deception, and subterfuge, and one count of tampering with a consumer product, according to a release from the Massachusetts US Attorney's Office.

According to charging documents, Noftle used her position in 2017 to obtain doses of morphine that were meant for the veterans under her care in the hospice unit, the US Attorney's Office said.

“Noftle admitted to federal agents that she mixed water from a sink with a portion of the liquid morphine doses, and then administered the diluted medication to patients orally,” the statement said. “Noftle then allegedly ingested a diluted amount of the remaining drug.”

Investigators also found that Noftle had previously resigned from another hospital, “following her failure to follow appropriate procedures when wasting narcotics on 60 occasions,” federal prosecutors said.