{"id":668633,"date":"2026-07-01T21:33:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T21:33:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/668633\/"},"modified":"2026-07-01T21:33:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T21:33:10","slug":"drug-addicted-nurse-may-have-caused-the-death-of-two-patients-and-staff-did-nothing-whistleblowers-claim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/668633\/","title":{"rendered":"Drug-addicted nurse may have caused the death of two patients and staff did nothing, whistleblowers claim"},"content":{"rendered":"

Your support helps us to tell the story<\/p>\n

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.<\/p>\n

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.<\/p>\n

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.<\/p>\n

Your support makes all the difference.Read more<\/p>\n

A pair of nurses at a Pennsylvania hospital are blowing the whistle<\/a> on the facility, claiming it ignored substance abuse problems in one of its other nurses and that his negligence<\/a> may have contributed to two patients’ deaths. <\/p>\n

Jennifer Duckett and Samantha Gallo \u2014 the former nurses \u2014 sued<\/a> Heritage Valley Sewickley Hospital in Sewickley, Pennsylvania<\/a>, in April 2025, but the filing was sealed until earlier this month, according to PennLive<\/a>. The lawsuit names Heritage Valley Health System, its executives, doctors and nurse<\/a> managers as defendants. <\/p>\n

In the filing, Duckett and Gallo accuse a nurse of stealing \u201ccontrolled substances from Heritage Valley to satiate his known drug addiction\u201d for the last eight years. It further claims that reports made about Chismire’s alleged behavior were ignored.<\/p>\n

The women include numerous alleged examples of the nurse stealing drugs, hiding away during his shift and getting high in the hospital. In one example, they claim that the nurse stole morphine that was meant to go to a patient experiencing “severe pain.” They said Chismire’s alleged drug use was widely known even among the hospital’s management, PennLive reports. <\/p>\n

The former nurses said the \u201cnursing managers have grown numb to [the nurse\u2019s] criminal conduct and illegally accept it as the norm.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"HeritageHeritage Valley Health System’s hospital in Sewickley, Pennsylvania. A pair of former nurses are suing the hospital, accusing it of ignoring a staffer who was allegedly stealing drugs (Google Maps)<\/p>\n

The Independent has requested comment from Heritage Valley Sewickley and the nurse. On Wednesday morning, the hospital’s website appeared to be down. <\/p>\n

The lawsuit also claims that two patients connected to the nurse have died; a 70-year-old woman and a 47-year-old man. <\/p>\n

The woman died after the nurse allegedly left her waiting to received treatment for hours after she arrived at the hospital. She died of an unspecified “medication error.” <\/p>\n

As for the 47-year-old, he was reportedly neglected after checking himself in with symptoms related to alcohol withdrawal. The filing claims that the man never receive care and was later found dead in his car from a head injury. <\/p>\n

The lawsuit also accuses the hospital of engaging in fraudulent billing to obfuscate the drugs allegedly taken by the nurse. It claims the hospital fixed its books to make it seem as though the drugs were used for valid medical purposes. <\/p>\n

The nurse worked at Heritage Valley until early 2026, and its unclear if they are still employed by the facility. <\/p>\n

The plaintiffs in the case are seeking compensatory and punitive damages. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":668634,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[102,2960,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-668633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=668633"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668633\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/668634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=668633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=668633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=668633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}