Tolland County resident Danielle Works, 42, of Stafford Springs, was sentenced to 20 months in prison and three years of supervised release on Wednesday, Aug. 18, said US Attorney Nathaniel Mendell for the District of Massachusetts.
On Tuesday, March 30, Works pleaded guilty to one count of tampering with a consumer product.
“Ms. Works took morphine away from a hospice patient who instead received diluted morphine in her final hours of life – it is hard to imagine a more vulnerable victim,” said Mendell.
On Jan. 27, 2018, Works tampered with a bottle of morphine prescribed to a patient at Governor’s Center, a nursing facility in Hampden County in Westfield, by removing the morphine from the bottle and diluting the remaining morphine with another substance.
The morphine was prescribed to a hospice patient, who subsequently received diluted doses of the medication shortly before her death.
After ingesting the morphine, Works was observed to be significantly impaired while providing care to patients at the nursing facility.
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