By Patti Weaver
STILLWATER — A nurse anesthetist accused of stealing fentanyl belonging to the Stillwater Medical Center on Jan. 5, 6, 8, 9, and 12 has been ordered to appear in court July 6 on a six-count felony charge including neglecting a vulnerable adult by interfering with the sedated patient’s intravenous line during anesthetic care to divert narcotics to his own bloodstream on Jan. 5.
If convicted of all counts on which he was arraigned last week, Daniel Brandon Boring, 36, could be given as much as a 45-year prison term plus a $60,000 fine, court records show.
Although Boring was arrested at his Stillwater residence on Jan. 20 by the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and released the following day from the Payne County Jail on $25,000 bond, he was not formally charged until April 6, court records show. Boring reportedly had gone into an inpatient treatment program.
During a jail interview, “Boring admitted to stealing and injecting fentanyl. Boring stated he would inject himself with the fentanyl prior to caring for patients and did so through an IV line in his foot,” OBN agent Jodi Willington alleged in an affidavit.
SMC CEO Denise Webber had reported to OBN on Jan. 16 that when the hospital had a sewer back up, “The plumbers found a mop head with an empty vial of fentanyl and a used syringe. Ms. Webber advised that at that point her administration began an investigation and reviewed hospital video,” the affidavit alleged.
Video on Jan. 12 showed Boring, then a nurse anesthetist employed by the Stillwater hospital, “in an operating room using a syringe of fentanyl on himself. In the video, Boring is seen loading a syringe of saline solution and then taking a syringe of fentanyl off the drug prep table.
“Boring is seen crossing his leg and putting the syringe into an IV line in his foot. Boring disposes of the fentanyl syringe in the sharps container. Boring then takes the syringe of saline and puts it into the IV in his foot. Boring then throws the empty syringe of saline into the trash.
“The video shows a patient being wheeled into the operating room, and Boring stands up to begin attending to the patient,” the affidavit alleged.
In a news release in January, OBN director Donnie Anderson had alleged, “What our agents discovered is shocking and demonstrates a blatant disregard for the safety of patients entrusted to his care. We found multiple instances where Boring was ingesting fentanyl into his body while working inside an operating room at the hospital. After ingesting the fentanyl, Boring would then assist with medical procedures on patients.”
