Drexel Hill EMT Charged With Stealing, Drinking Leftover Morphine
By Robin Culverwell
UPPER DARBY, Pa. (CBS) -- A Drexel Hill, Pa. man faces a hearing next week on charges he stole narcotics from his employer, an ambulance company.
Ronald Ferrell, 35, faces a dozen counts of theft, acquisition of a controlled substance and receiving stolen property.
Upper Darby Police Chief Michael Chitwood says the medical technician, who worked for Stat Medical Transport, would empty leftover vials of morphine and fentanyl, and then drink the drugs.
"Here's a guy who's trained -- a medic, whose job is to help people in distress, in need -- and then he's stealing the very drug that he's allegedly using to help those people," says Chitwood.
This was on top of what Ferrell says were legal prescriptions for Percocet and Dilaudid, which Ferrell says he takes for Crohn's disease.
Chitwood says they have had no complaints from any patients treated by Ferrell.
Police were alerted by the ambulance company, which found morphine and fentanyl disappearing at four times the normal rate when Ferrell was on the job.
