Former St. Cloud nurse charged with IV painkiller theft - KMSP-TV

Former St. Cloud nurse charged with IV painkiller theft

A former St. Cloud nurse has been charged in federal court with obtaining a controlled substance by fraud.

According to the charges, Blake Daniel Zenner used syringes to remove painkillers from intravenous bags intended for hospital patients. In some cases, he injected the IV bags with a saline solution to replace the missing medication.

The drug thefts were reported between November 2012 and March 2011 at St. Cloud Hospital. The charges say Zenner was extracting hydromorphone hydrochloride – commonly sold as Dilaudid – from the patient IV bags.

In March 2011, St. Cloud Hospital suspended Zenner after 23 cases of bloodstream bacterial infections turned up in patients. Zenner was identified as the common factor linking the infections via patient and medication access records.