GREELEY — Another Colorado nurse accused of stealing pain medication had a recorded drug problem before being hired at another hospital.
Marguerite Irene Furgerson is accused of using the names of at least three patients to get pain pills through forged prescriptions. Police say the 29-year-old former nurse at Hospice and Palliative Care of Northern Colorado wrote forged prescriptions to get more than 4,000 tablets of Vicodin or Hydrocodone over the past eight months.
Furgerson is the third health worker this year in Colorado accused of stealing pain medications. She has told police she is “heavily addicted” to painkillers.
Furgerson previously worked for North Colorado Medical Center, where she was reported to the State Board of Nursing for taking a patient’s Darvocet, another pain medication. The Greeley Tribune reported Wednesday that the state determined it was “an instance of misconduct and did not warrant formal action at the time.”
Although a letter was placed in Furgerson’s nursing file, it was not sent until six months after she was hired by the hospice, the newspaper reported. Furgerson’s current classification with the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies shows only a letter of admonition, dated in January.
Furgerson faces identity- theft charges and has been released on separate bonds totaling $15,000.
Another Colorado nurse pleaded guilty last month to stealing pain medication meant for surgical patients. Ashton Paul Daigle, 27, of Fort Collins substituted tap water or saline solution for Fentanyl at Boulder Community Hospital last year.
Daigle tested negative for blood-borne pathogens. He is to be sentenced later this year.
