CLIFTON, Texas — A 43-year-old Whitney woman was arrested for reportedly stealing morphine from a hospice patient and replacing it with cranberry juice, according to an arrest affidavit obtained by 6 News.
According to the affidavit, on March 13, the Whitney Police Department was first called out to home because Ashley Kay Bidwell had overdosed on morphine. Whitney PD then used Narcan on Bidwell to reverse the effects.
Bidwell told police she got the morphine from her job as a registered nurse at Clifton Lutheran Sunset Ministries (CLSM), according to the affidavit. Whitney Police then contacted the Clifton Police Department the next day for assistance in the investigation.
On March 29, the facility’s administrator, Lance Allen, called Clifton PD after he learned a former employee stole morphine from a patient and replaced it with cranberry juice, according to the affidavit. Allen identified that former employee as Bidwell, who was fired from her job after they learned of what she did, the affidavit states.
One witness told police that she was good friends with Bidwell when she was working at the facility. She said during lunch, Bidwell confessed to her that she was fired from a previous job because she stole medicine from a patient, according to the affidavit. Bidwell reportedly told the witness she had done the same thing while working for CLSM.
The witness continued to tell police that on March 11, Bidwell intercepted a morphine prescription intended for a patient at the home, the affidavit states. She did so by offering to take the morphine to another wing, the affidavit continues.
"Bidwell is an RN (registered nurse), so this was not unusual according to nursing home staff,” the affidavit states.
The witness said Bidwell told her instead of taking the medication to the correct wing, she took them into her office and left them there while she went to the cafeteria and got cranberry juice, the affidavit continues.
Bidwell then took the cranberry juice to her office, emptied out the morphine from the syringes and replaced them with cranberry juice, according to the affidavit. She then took the cranberry juice-filled syringes to the nurses’ station.
“It was later discovered that those syringes of cranberry juice were distributed to a patient… a hospice patient who is over 65 years of age. He is unable to speak and is prescribed Morphine to keep him comfortable during his time on hospice,” the affidavit states.
Unknowingly, the nurses gave him four syringes of cranberry juice in four hours, per the affidavit. In response, “Bidwell laughed the situation off stating that it would only be a couple doses and that they would be able to get him some more. As if to say, he wouldn’t be in pain long,” the affidavit reads.
Police then spoke to the assistant director of nursing who helped care for the hospice patient. She told police that the patient was in a lot of pain during this time and couldn’t get it under control, despite giving what she thought was his prescribed morphine, the affidavit states.
The assistant director told police that based on her professional opinion, the patient would have been in tremendous pain by not receiving the morphine.
A social worker also told police that on the day of the incident, she was surprised to find Bidwell at the facility late (around 5:30 p.m.), according to the affidavit. She explained that Bidwell works in wound care, which wouldn’t require her to stay late. She also told police that she saw Bidwell carrying a “clear pitcher of cranberry juice” when she ran into her in the cafeteria.
After speaking with witnesses, Allen handed police 20 syringes with a light maroon-colored substance. Staff told police that the morphine comes from Albrecht’s Pharmacy “with a purple or maroon colored dye,” according to the affidavit.
All of the syringes were removed and replaced with actual morphine, Allen told police.
Bidwell was arrested and booked in the Bosque County jail where her bond was initially set at $70,000 but later raised to $150,000. Bidwell faces charges of diversion of a controlled substance by registrants, which means she stole drugs from a patient, Clifton Police Chief Chris Blanton clarified.
"This person used their position with CLSM to take medication away from an elderly patient when he was in dire need of it, for their own addiction," Blanton said in a news release. "I want to stress that the CLSM took very swift action and was 100% cooperative with our investigation, which is why we were able to make such a quick arrest."
6 News sat down with Blanton Thursday to ask questions about the investigation and to clarify elements in the affidavit. He estimates this could have gone on for two weeks as the patient suffered in pain.
"It's kind of a shock to the entire community because again, this facility has been here for years and years and years, way before I was ever here," he said. "She was in a position where she was able to handle medications with the trust from her employer that she was going to not miss handle that information and that medication and she betrayed that trust to a pretty severe point."
6 News also talked with the President and CEO of Clifton Lutheran Sunset Ministries Rodney Rueter to try and find out how this happened.
He didn't answer many of our questions but he did say, "So, I'd really like to thank the Clifton Police and the Whitney Police for all the work they've done in this investigation. We continue to work hand-in-hand with them.
On Thursday, April 7, CLSM released a statement on the incident, saying employees immediately reported it to the police when it came to light. CLSM also said it adhered to proper hiring practices.
"I want to emphasize that Lutheran Sunset Ministries adheres to all proper hiring practices and regulations in all of its programs, which includes reviewing the nurse registry and completing a criminal background check and drug test. Nothing indicating a potential problem with this employee was found by the Texas Board of Nursing registry check, the Texas Department of Public Safety criminal background check or the drug test," the statement said.
"As far as we can tell they did their part in doing a background check on this individual per state law. It just so happens a bad apple made it through," Blanton said. "It is very unfortunate that this person put the stellar reputation of the CLSM and the safety of this patient in jeopardy."
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