A licensed practical nurse from Waverly was jailed Tuesday on suspicion of stealing morphine and oxycodone meant for two patients at a Lincoln nursing home.
LORI PILGER / Lincoln Journal Star | Posted: Wednesday, September 26, 2007 7:00 pm
A licensed practical nurse from Waverly was jailed Tuesday on suspicion of stealing morphine and oxycodone meant for two patients at a Lincoln nursing home.
Jacqueline “Jacki” Spoor, 49, was released after posting a $2,500 percentage bond.
Wednesday afternoon, she went before County Court Judge James Foster, who continued her arraignment to Oct. 30 at the prosecution’s request to await lab tests.
Spoor has not yet been charged.
Outside the courtroom, she declined to say anything about the allegations.
Spoor stands accused of stealing the prescription drugs while working, through a temporary staffing agency, at Milder Manor in Lincoln, Lancaster County Sheriff Terry Wagner said.
“At this point we don’t believe any of the patients were put in dire condition because of those thefts, but we are continuing to work on this case with the health care facilities that are involved, along with the State of Nebraska’s nurse licensing board,” he said.
The investigation started after Spoor’s family found her awake but responding strangely at home in Waverly the night of Sept. 17, Wagner said. Concerned about her, they called 911.
He said Spoor was taken to a Lincoln hospital for an accidental drug overdose.
Wagner said deputies, trying to determine what she’d taken, found three vials of morphine and three syringes of oxycodone. He said investigators later learned that she’d taken the drugs from her work.
Wagner alleged Spoor took morphine from two patients’ on Sept. 16, replacing it with sterile water so no one noticed. The patients were given the altered medicine until the tampering was discovered two days later, he said.
He said she also was believed to have taken drugs that were to be destroyed because a prescription had been discontinued or a patient had died.
“Those are the two methods that we know of.”
She was booked on suspicion of possession of a controlled substance.
Wagner said investigators now are working to determine if Spoor had taken narcotics from other care facilities where she’s worked.
“She had access to many different medical facilities,” he said.
Her LPN license was issued Nov. 29, 2005, and was set to expire at the end of October.
In the past three or four months, she had filled in at Sunrise Country Manor in Milford, the Waverly Care Center and the Thomas Fitzgerald Veterans Home in Omaha.
Wagner said they’re looking into the possibility Spoor could be connected to a Sept. 10 report of pain pills stolen from the Waverly Care Center.
According to the incident report, 116 Darvocet pills were taken from a locked medicine cart, accessible only to staff, during the previous month.
“This investigation is ongoing,” Wagner said.
If there’s a determination other patients were at risk, it could mean more charges, he said.
Reach Lori Pilger at 473-7237 or lpilger@journalstar.com.