THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, June 21, 1994 TAG: 9406210364
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: By JOE JACKSON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: 940621 LENGTH: PORTSMOUTH
Then Merchant, a registered nurse, filled the syringes with water. That's what the patients got.
{REST} He did this about 1,000 times, he later told police.
Merchant's on-again, off-again addiction was directly tied to his access as a health professional to drugs, interviews and court and medical records show. An addict for 20 years, he stayed out of trouble until his job made temptation too great and he went over the edge.
The job gave him the perfect opportunity for theft. With little supervision, he was in charge of ordering drugs for both radiology and the hospital's MRI trailer. The patients not only received no medical benefit from the stolen drugs, but they also could have risked HIV infection, because Merchant used the same needles to inject himself and the patients.
``But that wasn't the only danger,'' said Special Agent Tommy Gladson of the state police, who arrested Merchant last September. ``He used a lot of drugs on the job, and he was strung out while running tests on patients. Some of those he ran procedures on were children. . . . All without real checks and balances.''
Police and prosecutors said there were no reports of infection or injury at the hospital, but just the same, ``the idea was chilling,'' Gladson said. The hospital has since instituted stricter controls over prescription drugs, prosecutors said - but not before Merchant ran amok.
Yet this wasn't the first time for Merchant. In the late 1970s, he stole drugs and injected them while working as a staff nurse in Lake Charles, La. The Louisiana board of medicine revoked his license. Fourteen years later, he came to Virginia, reapplied for a nurse's license and repeated history.
On Monday, Merchant pleaded guilty to six counts of embezzling drugs. Nine other counts were dropped as part of the plea agreement. Circuit Judge Dennis McMurran sentenced Merchant to six years supervised probation and 104 hours of community service. He faced a maximum of 80 years behind bars.
Merchant is the latest in the growing list of local doctors and nurses to be sentenced for prescription fraud and drug theft over the past few years. State police records and newspaper accounts show that since January 1993, at least four nurses and two doctors have been convicted. This includes Dr. William Wright Jr., accused of abandoning at least four patients in his care, and Dr. William Frederick Wheeler, arrested after abusing injectable animal tranquilizer and threatening to kill a nurse.
``We don't think Virginia's become a haven for doctors and nurses with drug problems,'' said Wayne Farrar, state Board of Medicine spokesman. ``But there do seem to be more cases lately, and it's cause for concern.
``I think maybe you're seeing a number of factors in Tidewater,'' he said. ``The state police's drug-diversion unit's cases are coming to court. I'd expect to see more drug cases in metropolitan areas just because there are more doctors and nurses there. . . . Plus, the commonwealth's attorneys may be more aggressive in prosecuting these types of cases'' in South Hampton Roads.
Merchant, 39, grew up in Louisiana, the son of an alcoholic father and ``emotionally abusive'' mother possibly addicted to ``nerve pills.'' His father died in 1974, so he quit college to support the family. Six years later, his younger brother was shot to death by police, records show.
His drug addiction began around the same time. In 1974, he hurt his back at work, and an orthopedic surgeon prescribed painkillers. Soon, he was addicted to morphine, which ``took away all anxiety and inner turmoil. . . he did not have to be invisible anymore,'' records said.
In 1977, Merchant started working at a hospital in Lake Charles. That same year, a dentist prescribed painkillers after oral surgery, a prescription that jump-started his addiction. This time, though, he had easy access to drugs.
For the next two years, Merchant stole morphine and other drugs from the hospital. In 1979, the Louisiana Board of Medicine caught up with him and revoked his license. It was reinstated in 1988 after he completed drug therapy. From 1989 to 1992, Merchant worked as a nurse in Louisiana, then came to Hampton Roads. In April 1993, he began work as a contract nurse at Portsmouth Naval Hospital.
That same month, his problems began. Two things happened. His father-in-law, with whom he was close, died. And he took some prescription cough medicine laced with narcotics. Merchant was hooked again.
Court records show that from April to Sept. 21, 1993, when he was arrested, Merchant regularly diverted drugs with near impunity. He ordered and injected sufentanil and fentanyl, two drugs used by anesthesiologists in major surgery. He injected morphine meant for patients, then replaced the drug with saline solution. Every entry he made into narcotics logs was false, he later told police.
That summer, Gladson and Agent Jeff Brackett of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service got a tip about Merchant's activities. When they checked drug records, they saw Merchant was ordering drugs for doctors who had left the hospital several months earlier.
On Sept. 21, they caught him on Effingham Street in Portsmouth after watching him inject himself in the hospital parking lot. Several drug vials, syringes and needles were in his lab coat. According to records, ``Merchant was asked where the drugs were and he said that the drugs were inside him.''
Afterward, Merchant thanked the investigators for arresting him. ``He said in court later that I probably saved his life,'' Gladson said.
{KEYWORDS} PRESCRIPTION FRAUD DRUG THEFT SENTENCING
by CNB