Michigan emergency room nurse sentenced to prison for tampering with vials of fentanyl
A former emergency room nurse from Metro Detroit who admitted to tampering with vials of fentanyl has been sentenced to two years in federal prison.
Travis Eskridge, 54, of Grosse Pointe Park, was charged in February with three counts of tampering with a consumer product, one count of theft of medical products by an employee and one count of obtaining a controlled substance by fraud.
In May, Eskridge pleaded guilty and admitted to removing fentanyl from vials, replacing the fentanyl with another liquid and then returning the vials to a locked drug storage system. Federal prosecutors say Eskridge also admitted to stealing fentanyl vials over nine months.
"Emergency room patients trust they will be administered the pain relief drugs that the doctor ordered," said Special Agent Ronne Malham of the FDA Office of Criminal Investigations, Chicago Field Office. "We will continue to pursue and bring to justice healthcare professionals who violate their position of trust and jeopardize patients' health and well-being by tampering with their pain medications."
Eskridge worked as a registered nurse in the emergency room at Ascension St. John Hospital before he was removed from his position in August 2022 when the tampering and theft of the vials were discovered.
"When nurse Eskridge placed tampered vials back into the hospital's medical supply, he exposed patients in desperate need of pain relief to continued suffering," said U.S. Attorney Jerome F. Gorgon Jr. in a statement. "This is a reprehensible crime. No medical professional should torture a patient. I credit the hospital and the FDA investigators for their work in exposing this crime."
The Food and Drug Administration investigated Eskridge's case.