Minneapolis Star-Tribune, February 11, 2011
Allina Hospitals & Clinics officials said Thursday that they regret the suffering of a patient last fall, when a nurse at Abbott Northwestern Hospital allegedly stole his pain medicine before a routine kidney procedure. But they refused to draw any conclusions about what might have gone wrong, or why the procedure wouldn't have been halted if the patient was in pain. "We would never ever dispute a patient's perception of their pain," said Penny Wheeler, MD, CMO at Allina Hospitals & Clinics, which owns Abbott. "We're very sorry that that occurred to anybody under our care." The nurse, Sarah May Casareto, was charged Wednesday in Hennepin County District Court with stealing the painkiller, fentanyl, instead of giving it to the patient.
