OC sends a link from KAKE-11 that tells the story of Matthew Leininger, a 42-year-old nurse in the Minneapolis, Minnesota VA medical center who helped himself to their drug supply about 70 times between June and December last year.
Matthew Leininger used his position as a nurse at the VA to steal fentanyl, morphine and oxycodon….A criminal complaint alleges he accessed the narcotics through a machine called Pyxis that is used to dispense drugs to doctors and nurses so they can administer them to patients.
Leininger was required to log in with both a user ID and fingerprint….Investigators questioned Leininger on December 28, when he reportedly told them the drugs were stolen to aid his mental health struggles.
Smart guy. I’d think the machine would have busted him sometime before the 70th time, though.
Comments
52 responses to “Matthew Leininger; VA nurse steals drugs”
The patients being shorted … weren’t they complaining?
Nobody was paying attention. The VA as usual.
When prescribed as needed or by request, “Happy
Matt” merely cut an extra dose or few for a patient who never missed it because he did not ask for it.
Happy probably dropped hot on a random ptest.
Just curious, doesn’t anyone monitor the log-ins? Do they ever do an inventory and match what is on hand with what was received and what was prescribed?
Or, don’t they give a shit about their drugs and who might be using what?
I’ll take “Don’t give a shit” for $783 billon, Alex.
Hmmm….cross checks are supposed to show how much was drawn, used and excess returned or disposed of. Disposing of narcotic is supposed to be done with a witness signing the record. This should have been caught earlier.
We attempted twice to get a digital formulary dispensing system in Iraq to the Iraqi Corp Hospital….for some strange reason, they were very resistant to the idea.
Every time my engine’s medic uses less than the whole vial of morphine, I have to witness him smash it and sign for it as the company officer and witness of record. If at all possible, we have the whole crew witness it, even if I’m the one who signs. I take zero chances when it comes to the paycheck that feeds my kids.
I have seen times when field medics could not get morphine. Hard to be accountable without paperwork. Medivac had a supply, hopefully.
Of course, French pharmaceuticals were preferred and easily available. Combustible farm products were popular and easier to come by than cold beer.
So how soon will he bawl to some committee and get rehired by the VA?
The cocksucker will not just get rehired, but promoted…
He actually killed himself shortly after this was posted.
I knew I guy once that could jimmy a gas station cashew machine. The owner never figured it out.
So he will probably enter a “Can-Do” drug rehab program depending in which state he holds a license. He may also not lose his license depending on where he is licensed. I would not be surprised if the VA launched a full scale investigation of the person who leaked this information to the press. Matt will probably be moved to a non-patient care position or promoted and the leaker hounded to the ends of the earth by the VA.
Move him to another facility and promote him.
The VA way.
Nah; prolly more like forced to attend 12 step meetings for a few years. Then the whole thing will be forgotten.
I can’t tell you how many Nurses, PA’s NP’s and Pharmacists I have seen get their licenses revoked or restricted because of diverting drugs from patients.
It’s not as easy as one might think and it’s also fairly hard to tell that drugs are being taken unless the pharmacy is keeping a tight rein on them.
The VA is quite hard on drug diverters too. Please don’t think that it will be shoved under the rug, I doubt it will be.
It’s a sure fire way to demote yourself to a case of the Steadily progressin’ low down mind bendin’, working at the car wash blues…
The VA is very hard on PAs. NPs, and Nurses that divert. I have witnessed this twice in my career. The reason why he probably didn’t get caught sooner was he probably started diverting patients’ PRNs that they weren’t asking for.
What probably got him caught was he either escalated to shorting patients, he pissed hot, someone witnessed him taking the drugs, or someone believed he was intoxicated on duty.
As for his license, I know here in Texas, he might be able to keep it if he completes a program and agrees to supervision, but that’s a big if.
The VA doesn’t bury stuff like this under the rug. Diversion is a huge no no. Not only is it very illegal, it’s highly unethical.
So are running “secret waiting lists”, paying blatantly fraudulent claims, and hounding whistleblowers. But the VA’s been documented to have done all of those over the past few years, too.
Bottom line: don’t be surprised if this guy gets off with a slap on the wrist. He’s played one of the “high cards” – e.g., “I have a substance abuse problem.” It seems that people are routinely cut breaks these days for claimed “substance abuse prolems” and are only rarely held fully accountable these days for crimes they commit to support a drug habit.
This is different, this offense absolutely HAS to be reported to the States’s nursing board. He WILL face a period of suspension, which may be probated or not, but bottom line, with license actions, the nurse will face disciplinary action which is out of the VA’s hands…. and even if he wasn’t reported by licenses & debarment here at the Va, state boards monitor the news… but this nurse already had his license suspended and can’t work.
From the employment side, I can’t speak to what they would do, let him resign, put him in a position that doesn’t require a license, or what, but speaking from the medical side, this person will face action.
I understand that certain VAs have done unethical actions in the past. All I can say to that is I do my best from 8:00 AM to 4:30 PM to see every patient, to help every patient, and won’t do anything unethical towards my patients as I’m a veteran and a patient of the VA myself. I wish I could implore others to have the same attitude, but I can’t.
For example, my heart breaks every time I walk by the CLC here. You have patients all over the place that need to be attended to and you have all the damn nurses and assistants at the nurses station. The worse part is these are our old, disabled veterans in a medico-nursing home type setting and they get ignored by the staff. The staff is more dedicated to their own drama which is why the VA police has to sit outside every night, because nurses and assistants would physically fight over stuff like boofing the same dude. It’s pathetic, and I’ve filed several complaints and nothing has changed. It’s pathetic. Part of me wonders if a congressional would even fix it.
I agree with PRN as the reason he got caught. Nurse number two :”Oh, I see you asked for and received your pain meds an hour ago.” Patient: “I didn’t ask for any pain meds.”
Here comes the shit storm.
He stole the drugs to cope with mental health issues? I see PTSD claim written all over this with a second chance. What I don’t get is how it was possible to crook so many drugs over six months w/o ‘leadership’ figuring it out. Oh, wait, I see where my thinking is flawed. Countin’ da dope was a big deal wherever I was stationed. Did he crook drugs intended for patients? Patient abuse there. Or did he just crook the ‘surplus’ dope?
Matthew was definitely dealing with mental illness. He is no longer with us. Please respect the family and leave no more negative comments.
Could be legit, folks. While we’ve had sockpuppets falsely claim people featured in articles on TAH were dead before to “take the heat off”, the name and age for the linked obit are a good match. It’s also from the same general area of the country (Racine, WI, is about 200mi or so from Minneapolis/St-Paul).
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/journaltimes/obituary.aspx?page=lifestory&pid=186881200
Its absurd how people like you can kill with your words and you bear no consequences. By all rights, you should be imprisoned for murder. You killed Matthew. He read your posts and then decided to kill himself. You have blood on your hands. Matthew did more good in his life than you did in yours. FUCK YOU!
I guess you aren’t going to hold Matt responsible at all, huh? I guess he did die.
hugo: Did you provide the same comments to KARE 11, the Star Tribune and other news media who came out with the story?
http://www.kare11.com/mobile/article/news/va-nurse-charged-with-stealing-drugs/477877746
http://m.startribune.com/nurse-charged-with-stealing-drugs-from-va-hospital/446867403/
Am guessing you are going thru the Anger stage of grief. Matthew was responsible for taking his own life because of his mental state. The articles even mentioned he took those drugs to deal with his mental health issue.
Don’t know if he ever sought help for his condition or if others knew he had problems. Mental illness is a disease, similiar to having diabetes or high blood pressure. It can be treated with medications and change of lifestyle, just as physical diseases are treated.
But just as the physical disease, one has to have the desire to be treated, i.e. go to a physician for treatment, asking for help. If they don’t, then no one is responsible for their demise but themselves.
I know this from experience. I lost one relative because that person refused to acknowledge they were getting older and started having physical problems. That person was in denial, refused to go to a doctor and died at an early age. That person only thought about that person and never thought the impact that death would have on family members.
The other family committed suicide. Again, the signs were all there-yet that person denied they had mental issues and refused treatment. That person could not comprehend that depression/mental illness is a true disease that can be helped (not cured) by proper medication, therapy, change of lifestyle.
And just as that other person, that person was only thinking of that person’s self and not realizing or caring that death can take a toll on family left behind.
Sorry about your loss, but TAH is not responsible for Matthew’s death. Matthew was responsible for Matthew. Perhaps when you get thru the Anger stage, you will finally accept HIS decision to end his own life and move on with yours.
Actually, Hugo was spot on. It states clearly in the article that Matthew was dealing mental health issues. Thus, the trolls that used words such as “cocksucker” and so forth to refer to him, knew that they were BULLYING a mentally compromised person, who given the fact that he lost his career and was soon to lose his freedom, was very likely contemplating suicide. The legal system in America is obscene. Of course, the right-wing trolls that made those comments don’t care because they think that system will never come after them or someone in their family. But, it will. As to whether Matthew was responsible for his decision, take account of the fact that mental illness is a disease of the brain, and the nervous tissue involved in decision making can be diseased. You are thinking like a prosecutor, not as a human being. In the end, the disease was ultimately responsible, no person. Not even the trolls, because they have a brain disease too – its called stupidity.
Typical. No one is responsible except those who might disagree with you? Such a mature attitude. And so fair. Especially to Matthew.
/sarc
Maybe these folks are overwhelmed with guilt for not having done something constructive to help Matthew.
Something constructive? You mean like sending him to prison? Ohhh, how constructive. Our government is soooo interested in “helping” us. If anyone was responsible, it would have been those who have expertise in mental health and AODA matters, i.e., his employer. I imagine the management was pissed they lost money on those drugs. So they enacted vengeance upon him and made an example out of him, here you go, here’s five felonies and a prison sentence. I did some checking on WI CCAP website, he was divorced not long ago, then lost his license to be a nurse, then those charges. So lost his family, then his livelihood, then his freedom. His mind also fits in their somewhere. I’m just saying that those that have competence in these matters didn’t act judiciously.
It’s immature to contend that anyone was wholly responsible for what happened. If I die from cancer next year, are doctors responsible because they haven’t cured cancer? Why aren’t I also responsible because I haven’t cured cancer? Your analysis lacks any depth, OWB. Your leaps in logic are typical sloppy thinking of someone thats been sitting in front of the TV on his fat ass drinking cheap Hamms beer since 1973.
No sense in anyone being overwhelmed with guilt. The number of problems in this world is what’s overwhelming. Everybody is responsible for everything, and no one is responsible for anything. There’s trillions of problems in this world. That’s just the way it is.
MadDog:
I seriously douby that OWB would be able to sit on “his fat ass” since she is a grown woman.
Since I am not a prosecuter, I can’t “think” as a prosecuter. I can only “think” as a sibling who lost a brother through suicide and as an Army DCO who lost Soldiers thru death by the enemy or by their own hands.
As stated before by me, mental illness is a disease. You never did answer my question about “blaming” the news media about publishing stories on him.
I stand firm on my opinion based on personnel experiences with suicide. No matter how diseased Matthew’s brain was, some part of his brain and soul was able to make a choice to end his life. To blame others is to take away responsibilty from Matthew (projection) because no one wants to carry that “guilt” that they might have been a major factor in his demise.
Ignoring for a moment the self-contradictory and sophomoric foolishness of the statement above: you do realize that you’re being hypocritical here, right? If “everyone” is indeed responsible for everything, then logically you’re culpable too. And if “no one is responsible for anything”, then why are you castigating those here who did nothing more than bluntly call out a thief for being a thief?
Regarding your implied contention that “someone should have helped Matthew”, well yes – someone should have. But that individual was Matthew himself. He should have asked for help before he turned to crime, or even afterwards. Maybe then he wouldn’t have offed himself. But he chose not to do so.
Perhaps you should try removing the log from your own eye before pointing out the splinter in another’s.
Right. He couldn’t possibly have killed himself because he’d just been charged with serious crimes that could have landed him in prison for a long time. And it wasn’t because his criminal charges had been publicized in the news. No, it was because a handful of strangers said mean things about him on the internet.
As a former coworker of Matt’s, I must say that I am disheartened at the way he was spoken about by some of the commenters on this board. Matt was a very kind, hard-working person that helped thousands of people.
It has me feeling philosophical. There are two different classes of professions that “help people”. There are those that help people by helping people. Doctors, nurses, scientists, and service workers and so on fall in that category. But then there are those that “help people” by “hurting people”. Lawyers, politicians, judges, are the best examples of that category. They couldn’t honestly just help someone if their life depended on it. They just can’t bring themselves to it.
Its sad that the system was going to take a mistake that Matthew made and make it define the rest of his life. Why don’t his good works count? It demonstrates a very deep sickness, a type of mean-spirited sadism, in our society’s legal profession.
On the spiritual side, I do believe that Matthew is in a very happy, good place now. And I think he is enjoying his newfound freedom and just basking in God’s love.
One reason I say that is I remember a conversation with him in which he stated that he thought it was sad that humans are the least free of all the animals. And when I think about it, he was right.
I don’t believe humans can gain power over other humans in the spiritual realm. That’s the one thing that goes on on Earth that ruins everything. Its a class of people that are ruining everything here.
Matthew is in a far far better place. So in that sense I don’t feel bad at all, I envy him.
Blue, thank you for your comment.
My brother was a very kind hearted, hard working person as well. Except he was a Police Man for almost 30 years and never used alcohol or drugs to cover up his pain based on his “reigion”.
He displayed the warning signs, but refused treatment, help from family members, because he insisted nothing was wrong with him and WE were the ones who needed to seek mental health.
And he took his own life. Other family members went into the grief mode “If only I did this” or “If only I did that” that their relative would be still alive.
As heartbreaking as it was for me to lose my brother to suicide and knowing about his mental disease, I refused to take responsibility for his death since it was him that made that choice and not me.
We all need to be held accountable for our own actions and quit blaming others for other folks faults and demises (Projection)
And BTW, my brother was a Veteran, but did not have PTSD. He had a personality disorder. He did not commit crimes based on his personality disorder. None of his family members to include myself blamed the Police Deapartment, the Army or anyone else on his death. We did not even “blame” him. We realized he could not strugger with his own demons and in the end, that was how he chose to end his demons.
We are all entitled to our own opinion this topic and I respect Mad Dog’s and Blue’s comments and feelings, but again, based on my own PERSONAL experiences with suicides, TAH did not “murder” Matthew.
One last thing and I will get off my soapbox.
Nurses and Police are trained to save peoples lives.
Matthew and my brother could not save their own lives.
My compassion goes out to the patients who needed the medication that Matthew used on himself instead of the patients. Have either Mad Dog or Blue thought about them? What if THEY had died because they did not received their medication from Matthew that he used on himself? Who would be responsible for their death: the patient or Matthew? Or: who are truly the victims in what Matthew illegally did? The patients…or Matthew? If that happened to you or your family member, i.e. a nurse not giving a family member their medication, but instead, took the medicine himself, what would your feelings be for the nurse who did that?
I think what was going on is that he was taking medications that were prescribed for the patients, but the patients had refused (usually pain meds they don’t feel they need). Thats almost always the case in cases such as this. That he was taking the meds the patients needed or wanted is unlikely.
I agree with Blue and MadDog. I don’t believe not blaming Matthew necessarily shifts blame elsewhere. If you died of cancer is the responsibility for your death on you because you didn’t cure cancer. Afterall, it was your CHOICE not to be a scientist and work on curing cancer your whole life. It’s on you then. I think what they were driving at is that no one is blameless for anything, and there are degrees of blame that can be attributed. This all gets rather deep, my brain breaks on it.
But whatever, we all die anyways, and our consciousness moves on. I agree with Blue, Matthew is in an unbelievably better place than this hellhole called planet Earth. Here, it’s the fear of death that enslaves us. The defining feature of life in this realm is … limits. Matthew no longer has limits.
Another rather ill-thought-out argument. The actual answer is situation dependent.
First, your argument implicitly assumes that the individual would have saved their own life by becoming a scientist and working on developing a cure for cancer. There’s no guarantee that this would have been the case – or that the “cure” so developed would have been effective against all kinds of cancer.
Second: in some cases an individual who dies of cancer does indeed arguably bear at least partial culpability for their own demise. The classic example is a 3-pack-a-day smoker who contracts lung cancer (there’s a documented and strong statistical link between tobacco use and cancer – strong enough to suggest a cause-and-effect relationship exists). However, about 25% of lung cancer is idiopathic. Those cases don’t bear any obvious responsibility.
Each of us is responsible for what we do, and for the reasonably foreseeable consequences of same. However, the key here is “reasonably forseeable”. Otherwise, one will logically ultimately hold themselves responsible for all the world’s ills – and go crazy as a result. (“If only I’d become a ninja assassin; I could have sneaked into North Korea and offed Kim Jong Un, thus freeing his people from starvation!”)
Getting convicted of a felony is a reasonably foreseeable outcome of committing the crime of stealing prescription medications. Someone offing themselves due to comments made in an online forum that they may or may not ever read IMO is not.
Your analysis of my comment is slop. You claim I’m inferring things I did not. Those are your inferences, not mine. I thought out taking a shit this morning better than you thought out your response to my comment. I base my arguments on observations. You base yours on buzz phrases. Quod Erat Demonstrandum.
Horsedung. Your knowledge of logical argument is . . . lacking.
Your statement about responsibility and cancer above logically makes sense only if one assumes that a lifetime of work as a scientist would indeed save the individual who had been stricken with cancer’s life. Since you postulated they died of cancer, the only way that would be avoided is if they indeed found a cure for their own cancer. I merely pointed out the fact that they might engage in such a lifetime of effort and either (a) not find a cure for any caner, or (b) find a cure for some cancer other than theirs.
Alternatively, you could be admitting that your statement concerning cancer and responsibility had nothing to do with the matter at hand and was nothing but a non sequitur in the first place. That means you were engaging in diversion of attention from the matter at hand – which is a somewhat mendacious rhetorical technique. Hey, if that’s what you’re admitting, I’m OK with that. I love to see people admit publicly that they’re being underhanded and dishonest in their arguments; that rather thoroughly discredits their conclusions.
But then again, according to IP address information you (and several other commenters above) are the same person. So I’m not surprised.
Here ya go, sock puppet:
I’m also not surprised you have to think out taking a dump. Minds with limited capacity have to concentrate hard on doing things that people of normal intellect can do without much thought at all.
Now, please be so kind as to GFY. Explanation of acronym on request.
Nice, Hondo. Where do you get those toys?
Obviously, some of the bozos on this thread have a vested interest in completely blaming Matthew for what happened, because they want to make damn sure that they bear no responsibility, or make themselves feel that they don’t. These are sissies. We all bear responsibility for what happened. Why do you refuse to see that? Wimps.
“We all bear responsibilties for what happened.”
TheShadow: Who is “We?”
Does that “We” include you and most important, Matthew?
What about the Hospital who caught Matthew? Do they fall into the “We” category?
What about the Judicial system? The newspapers who reported the story? His family?
Why do I feel a few does not want Matthew to be held accountable/responsible for his own demise and blames others for his death. Did it ever occur to anyone he chose to end his life because he did not want to go to prison?
Yes. Me. You. Matthew. The DAs. The newspaper reporters. But this blame thing is childish. The very fact that anyone is attempting to find blame is assuming Matthew is somewhere he doesn’t want to be. I guarantee you, he’s laughing at this shit right now. Everyone on the other side is just laughing at this bullshit. And yes, I’m sure he didn’t want to go to prison. Yet at the same time, it’s assuming an awful lot that he didn’t feel like he had been in prison his whole life. This world is a prison. People gaining power over other people. We are all born with god given freedoms, including the whole earth as our home. But the assholes take that away from us with their borders and armies, etc. God did not intend these things. Matthew said “fuck this place” and I don’t blame him. We have a perfectly fine planet, its just that before you call a person crazy, make sure he’s not just being surrounded by assholes. That’s all.
ATTENTION K-MART SHOPPERS, sock puppet cleanup in aisle 13!
Well, well, well. What a load of crap spews out of EuroTrash.
Trying create an argument that doesn’t exist with irrelevant statements is not an argument. It’s an attempt to deflect the real issue, which is Leininger offing himself because he got caught stealing drugs.
Yo’ boy, Eurotrash, was an addict. Addicts are responsible for their own addictions. You are MILES off base. You’ll have to accept the fact that your buddy was an addict and offed himself because he got caught.
He was an addict. Deal with it.
Actions, consequences, shit like that.
Unfortunately, he took the easy way (for him) out and left those around him to deal with a lifetime of pain and unanswered questions.
I agree with you Shadow. To say otherwise is to say “only we and we alone” are responsible for ourselves. Though it may sound ideal, even noble, it is not reality. Taking the lung cancer example above, cigarette companies used to hand out cigarette candy to little kids when I was growing up. Are those kids back then wholly responsible for starting smoking when they were like 14?! After billions of dollars had been spent manipulating their heads into it? Remember the Marlboro Man ads on Saturday fucking mornings?
This all smacks of the free will versus determinism thing. We all like to believe in free will. It seems like we have it, but that’s really only a feeling. In order for free will to be real, subatomic particles would have to be conscious, or telekinesis must be real such that our mind could move the matter of the brain. If subatomic particles are not conscious (probably not, since they lack nervous systems) and telekinesis is not real (probably not unless you’re a Uri Geller fan), then we actually have no free will. It’s just a feeling. What humans have is a lesser version of free will, it’s called desire.
We therefore are not wholly responsible for our actions, as they stem from beliefs that were manufactured largely by other people.
Ultimately, it is the belief in free will that underlies the most horrific abuses perpetuated by nation states against their own people, such as the incarceration apocalypse currently happening in the United States. Any person that is awake can see that the United States is torturing its people. Incarceration is a form of torture.
Matthew refused to be tortured. Goodbye.
Of course you agree with TheShadow, you’re both the same person. You, TheShadow, Blue, Maddog and hugo are all using the same computer. Grow up, junior.
ATTENTION K-MART SHOPPERS, sock puppet cleanup in aisle 13!!!
LOL
Another fucking sock puppet.