{"id":127875,"date":"2026-03-03T00:36:06","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T00:36:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/127875\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T00:36:06","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T00:36:06","slug":"pittsburgh-paramedic-injected-son-with-performance-enhancing-hormones-wpxi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/127875\/","title":{"rendered":"Pittsburgh paramedic injected son with performance-enhancing hormones \u2013 WPXI"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">A Pittsburgh paramedic is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wpxi.com\/news\/local\/pittsburgh-medic-facing-criminal-charges-ohio-leave-accused-giving-teenage-son-steroids\/C5E7G76TQRGOZFHGVWI2DGVFS4\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.wpxi.com\/news\/local\/pittsburgh-medic-facing-criminal-charges-ohio-leave-accused-giving-teenage-son-steroids\/C5E7G76TQRGOZFHGVWI2DGVFS4\/\">on leave and facing criminal charges<\/a> for giving his teenage son steroids last spring.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">RELATED COVERAGE &gt;&gt;&gt; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wpxi.com\/news\/local\/pittsburgh-medic-facing-criminal-charges-ohio-leave-accused-giving-teenage-son-steroids\/C5E7G76TQRGOZFHGVWI2DGVFS4\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.wpxi.com\/news\/local\/pittsburgh-medic-facing-criminal-charges-ohio-leave-accused-giving-teenage-son-steroids\/C5E7G76TQRGOZFHGVWI2DGVFS4\/\">Pittsburgh medic facing criminal charges in Ohio on leave; accused of giving teenage son steroids<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">Court documents filed in Columbiana County, Ohio, accuse Michael Bess, 43, of injecting his 16-year-old son with steroid shots. Bess is charged with child endangerment, a misdemeanor.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">Last April, Bess was working part-time as a weightlifting coach for his son\u2019s high school football team in Wellsville, Ohio. His son had suffered a shoulder injury and was trying to rehabilitate it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">\u201cWe were just talking about how we\u2019re gonna fix it, and he brought up steroids,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wpxi.com\/news\/local\/11-investigates-exclusive-pittsburgh-paramedic-accused-giving-teenage-son-steroids\/MHYXWTLWZ5E73MJTEJ5QVJYASI\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.wpxi.com\/news\/local\/11-investigates-exclusive-pittsburgh-paramedic-accused-giving-teenage-son-steroids\/MHYXWTLWZ5E73MJTEJ5QVJYASI\/\">the teenager told 11 Investigates in the fall.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">The affidavit shows the injections came to light because another trainer, a man who died last year, told the teenager\u2019s mom what was happening and that Bess had been injecting the victim with performance-enhancing hormones with a hypodermic needle.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">The affidavit said that after the teenager was asked, he confirmed it was true and that it had been going on for about six weeks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">Bess\u2019 son is a childhood cancer survivor, and his family said doctors were concerned the injections could cause him further harm. His medical records, provided to and reviewed by 11 Investigates, showed doctors monitored him and treated him last year for \u201cmedical neglect of child by caregiver,\u201d \u201cdrug-induced headache,\u201d and \u201cpoisoning by anabolic steroid.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">An investigation by Ohio Job and Family Services substantiated allegations of child abuse.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">A spokesperson confirmed to 11 Investigates that Pittsburgh EMS command staff placed Bess on administrative leave, and the city is not at liberty to discuss disciplinary matters further.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">Bess was arraigned on Monday. He pleaded not guilty and made bond. <\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">Download the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wpxi.com\/mobile-apps\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">FREE WPXI News app<\/a> for breaking news alerts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">Follow Channel 11 News on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/wpxi\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WPXI\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Twitter<\/a>. | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wpxi.com\/video\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Watch WPXI NOW<\/a><\/p>\n<p>TOP STORIES FROM CHANNEL 11 NEWS <\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph body-copyright\">\u00a92026 Cox Media Group<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Pittsburgh paramedic is on leave and facing criminal charges for giving his teenage son steroids last spring.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":127876,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[53281,2636,56042,9782,869,3824,2637,2634,24287,59607,59602,59603,59601,59600,59605,59604,2635,73,75,74,295,420,59606],"class_list":["post-127875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-_ohio","tag-11-investigates","tag-bess","tag-best","tag-channel_11","tag-gordon","tag-investigate","tag-investigates","tag-jatara_mcgee","tag-job_and_family_services","tag-jutara_mcgee","tag-juterra","tag-lovett","tag-lovitt","tag-michael_bess","tag-michael_bests","tag-ott_investigates","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-top-stories","tag-video","tag-wellsville"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127875\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/127876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}