Maryland Woman Admits To Stealing Pain Meds From Patients

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) -- A 54-year-old woman has admitted to injecting herself with her patients' pain medications and refilling medicine bottles with useless saline while she worked as a nurse at a western New York hospital.

The U.S. Attorney's Office says Leyla Samadi pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal Court in Buffalo to illegally obtaining controlled substances by fraud.

Prosecutors say Samadi tampered with pain medications from late November 2015 to early January 2015 while working as a registered nurse at Sisters of Charity Hospital in Buffalo. The tampering involved a machine that automatically dispenses liquid pain medications.

Authorities say it's likely some of her patients who should have been receiving medicine for their pain actually received "nothing more potent than water."

Samadi, who now lives in St. Mary's County, Maryland, faces up to four years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

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