Tennessee nurse is placed on probation after turning up for work with a ‘sweaty, flushed face’ and ‘her eyes rolling back in her head’ from fentanyl
- Alicia Kisselbaugh is a registered nurse at Vanderbilt University Medical Center
- Last November, she turned up for work one day with ‘sweaty, flushed face’
- She had ‘purple and blue-tinged hands’ and her ‘eyes rolled back in her head’
- A urine test revealed that she had taken synthetic opioid fentanyl
- Kisselbaugh will be allowed to continue working while on three-year probation
A Tennessee nurse said to have showed up to work one day high on fentanyl has been placed on probation.
Alicia Kisselbaugh, a resident nurse at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, has been allowed to remain on the job after she turned up last November with a ‘sweaty, flushed face, purple and blue-tinged hands, confusion, eyes rolling back in her head, and appearing exhausted.’
Her co-workers had Kisselbaugh sent to the emergency room, according to Scoop Nashville.
A urine test taken soon after revealed that she had taken fentanyl.
Alicia Kisselbaugh, a resident nurse at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, has been placed on three years probation after she turned up at work one day having taken fentanyl
Kisselbaugh will be required to stay clean for three years before her license is fully reinstated. The stock image above shows Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Fentanyl, a synthetic form of heroin, is a highly addictive opioid that is prescribed to treat severe pain.
Considered 100 times more powerful than morphine, fentanyl is one of a number of synthetic opioids that has been blamed for thousands of deaths nationwide every year.
Last month, Kisselbaugh was permitted to continue working on a probationary basis.
In February, she began a three-year monitoring program during which she will be required to stay off drugs.
After completion of the program, Kisselbaugh must get approval from the monitoring program to have her nursing license fully restored.
During this period, Kisselbaugh will not be permitted to practice nursing in any other state.
What is fentanyl and why is it so dangerous?
Fentanyl was originally developed in Belgium in the 1950s to aid cancer patients with their pain management.
Given its extreme potency it has become popular amongst recreational drug users.
Overdose deaths linked to synthetic opioids like fentanyl jumped from nearly 10,000 in 2015 to nearly 20,000 in 2016 – surpassing common opioid painkillers and heroin for the first time.
And drug overdoses killed more than 72,000 people in the US in 2017 – a record driven by fentanyl.
It is often added to heroin because it creates the same high as the drug, with the effects biologically identical. But it can be up to 50 times more potent than heroin, according to officials in the US.
In America, fentanyl is classified as a schedule II drug – indicating it has a strong potential to be abused and can create psychological and physical dependence.