{"id":426663,"date":"2026-10-13T15:22:16","date_gmt":"2026-10-13T15:22:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/426663\/"},"modified":"2026-10-13T15:22:16","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T15:22:16","slug":"icu-nurse-accused-of-taking-fentanyl-from-critically-ill-patient-at-psl-hospital-10","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/426663\/","title":{"rendered":"ICU nurse accused of taking fentanyl from critically ill patient at PSL hospital"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. (CBS12)  \u2014 A family member\u2019s watch over a critically ill loved one led to the arrest of an ICU nurse accused of taking fentanyl from the patient\u2019s IV infusion at<a href=\"https:\/\/my.clevelandclinic.org\/locations\/directions\/537-tradition-hospital\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"> Cleveland Clinic Tradition Hospital<\/a>, Port St. Lucie police said.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pslpolice.com\/Home\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Port St. Lucie police <\/a>arrested Leslie Ann Pope, 54, of Jupiter, on Oct. 8 after an investigation into allegations that she allegedly removed fentanyl while working in the hospital\u2019s intensive care unit.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"A family member\u2019s watch over a critically ill loved one led to the arrest of an ICU nurse accused of taking fentanyl from the patient\u2019s IV infusion at Cleveland Clinic Tradition Hospital, Port St. Lucie police said. (WPEC)\" class=\"ImageEmbed_image__qZBo_\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"365\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1791904936_119_4e9fe146-9c0a-4061-ae8f-6cd28666b961-WPECPHOTOFORWEB12.png\" width=\"648\"\/><\/p>\n<p>A family member\u2019s watch over a critically ill loved one led to the arrest of an ICU nurse accused of taking fentanyl from the patient\u2019s IV infusion at Cleveland Clinic Tradition Hospital, Port St. Lucie police said. (WPEC)<\/p>\n<p>Investigators said a family member saw Pope use a syringe to withdraw fluid from the patient\u2019s fentanyl infusion, place the syringe in her pocket and leave the room. Police said Pope was not assigned to care for that patient.<\/p>\n<p>The following evening, police said Pope returned to the patient\u2019s room and approached the IV equipment again. This time, a family member intervened, and detectives later reviewed video that they said showed Pope manipulating protective caps on the equipment.<\/p>\n<p>See also: <a href=\"https:\/\/cbs12.com\/news\/cbs12-news-i-team\/no-lawyer-no-law-degree-port-st-lucie-man-takes-on-flock-cameras-in-federal-court\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">No lawyer, no law degree: Port St. Lucie man takes on Flock cameras in federal court<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Investigators said they were unable to establish whether additional medication was removed during the second encounter.<\/p>\n<p>According to police, the investigation included witness interviews, hospital surveillance video, medical and administrative records, medication transaction reviews and coordination with the Drug Enforcement Administration.<\/p>\n<p>Pope was arrested in Jupiter with help from the Palm Beach Marshals Task Force. She faces the following felony charges:<\/p>\n<p>Grand theft of a controlled substancePossession of a controlled substance without a prescriptionFraudulently obtaining a controlled substance<\/p>\n<p>The case remains active. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 A family member\u2019s watch over a critically ill loved one led to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":426664,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[171,173,172],"class_list":["post-426663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","tag-port-st-lucie-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=426663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/426664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=426663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=426663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=426663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}