PA - Mom accused of stealing meds from terminally ill son's IV

[Texas Mist]

How low can an egg donor go? Stealing sedatives from the IV of her son on life support!

Vancouver woman accused of stealing ill son's drugs at a Pennsylvania Hospital

A mother visiting her terminally ill son at a Pennsylvania hospital has been accused of injecting herself with the boy’s drugs.

Karen Remsing of Vancouver was charged over the weekend with child endangerment, reckless endangerment, theft, criminal mischief, and committing prohibitive acts including possession of the prescription medication. Authorities say the 42-year-old mother was visiting her 15-year-old son at UPMC’s Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh when she unhooked his intravenous line, siphoned out a sedative using a syringe and injected herself with it.

Authorities say Remsing then reconnected the IV line and left an air bubble in the tube which put her son in further danger.

Remsing is being held in the Allegheny County Jail and her preliminary hearing is set for Wednesday. It wasn’t immediately known if she had an attorney.

Remsing’s husband, Richard Remsing, told TV station WPXI of Pittsburgh that he and his son moved to Pittsburgh 10 years ago so the boy could be treated while his wife stayed in Washington to work. He said the boy needs an intestine transplant and is on life support.

more here

http://www.columbian.com/news/2010/n...sons-drugs-pe/

<snip>

Workers said there was blood covering the bathroom and on the mother, but Remsing said it was a result of her cutting herself “while cutting her fingernails,” police said.

http://www.wpxi.com/news/25591637/detail.html

[Filly]

Come on she was tired and depressed.

O.K. first off she's an RN. How the heck you gonna leave blood all over the place and use two needles? This says to me she most likely did one shot and that wasn't enough so she did some more. Thus why hospital staff found her slumped over.

That lady could have OD'd on her kids bed. A poor child that did nothing to be in the condition he is in.

Midazolam. Benzo. Man, shehad to take quite a bit to fall out like that which means that poor kid could have gone to surgery minus the drug he needed to calm him.

Pittsburgh police are sensitive to her situation and are getting her the counseling she needs to deal with her son's illness. O.K. I can't Judge the lady on that because thank God I don't know what that's like. However, I don't care if it was her great aunt twice removed. You don't go stealing medication when a person is sick like that. He*l you don't go stealing it period.

Oh yeah she confessed she's a recovering addict. She runs a facility of some kind. I found her on Linkd and it appears she also ran another extended care facility. We don't need to be rocket scientists to figure that one out. How many patient's did she steal med's from if she did this to her own child?



http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10306/1099941-53.stm


Oh yeah what's up with the blood all over the bathroom? Said she did it cutting her fingernails. Now we have a RN can't hit a vein properly? I feel bad for her poor husband.

[Filly]

Rick Remsing is standing by his woman. The mother if his dying son.

Remsing's Attorney said Rick and Karen were taking shfts. Untrained staff were pointing fingers.

O.K. I know squat about law, but would this mean dad could have done it? Staff could have done it? Didn't the woman confess. Then again she has years of sobriety. Then again no matter how many years clean she has this is a time of crisis.

No matter that poor kid has suffered enough. Oh and Rick Ramsing said his son is not aware his mother is in jail. So she's not out. O.K.

http://www.wpxi.com/news/25609381/detail.html

[drip~drop]

Originally Posted by Filly

Rick Remsing is standing by his woman. The mother if his dying son.

Remsing's Attorney said Rick and Karen were taking shfts. Untrained staff were pointing fingers.

O.K. I know squat about law, but would this mean dad could have done it? Staff could have done it? Didn't the woman confess. Then again she has years of sobriety. Then again no matter how many years clean she has this is a time of crisis.

No matter that poor kid has suffered enough. Oh and Rick Ramsing said his son is not aware his mother is in jail. So she's not out. O.K.

http://www.wpxi.com/news/25609381/detail.html

No matter her crisis, NOBODY needs to be stealing meds from patients. Her being an RN, she should have the brains to get what meds she felt in need of from a MD. I can understand her needing a benzo but she sure went about it horribly.
imo

[oh_gal]

Even I am finding it difficult to find a compassionate thing to say here.

[Lyn1001]

Originally Posted by Filly

Rick Remsing is standing by his woman. The mother if his dying son.

Remsing's Attorney said Rick and Karen were taking shfts. Untrained staff were pointing fingers.

O.K. I know squat about law, but would this mean dad could have done it? Staff could have done it? Didn't the woman confess. Then again she has years of sobriety. Then again no matter how many years clean she has this is a time of crisis.

No matter that poor kid has suffered enough. Oh and Rick Ramsing said his son is not aware his mother is in jail. So she's not out. O.K.

http://www.wpxi.com/news/25609381/detail.html

Okay, in the link it states:

"The Remsing's attorney, Blaine Jones, said Karen has been falsely accused by Children's Hospital employees.

"Rick and Karen were taking shifts. There was staff that was not trained, pointing fingers," said Jones."

How can she be falsely accused of injecting HERSELF? Are they trying to say that staff injected her? She even showed the police where she injected herself. And she was bleeding.

[2goldfish]

just when I think I've heard it all.

[Filly]

Here's an interesting article that's more about Ben. His condition is so rare that only 300 people in the world have it.

He's constantly in the hospital. His parents and siblings always keep vigil.

Poor kid.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10308/1100554-53.stm

[2goldfish]

yeah, like he doesnt have it bad enough without having to wake up and find his mom OD'd on the bed next to him after stealing his meds out of his IV.

I know it didnt get quite as bad as all that but dang.

[Snackcakes66]

Originally Posted by Filly

Rick Remsing is standing by his woman. The mother if his dying son.

Remsing's Attorney said Rick and Karen were taking shfts. Untrained staff were pointing fingers.

O.K. I know squat about law, but would this mean dad could have done it? Staff could have done it? Didn't the woman confess. Then again she has years of sobriety. Then again no matter how many years clean she has this is a time of crisis.

No matter that poor kid has suffered enough. Oh and Rick Ramsing said his son is not aware his mother is in jail. So she's not out. O.K.

http://www.wpxi.com/news/25609381/detail.html

nope, not buying it. IV Versed is some serious carp. Injecting someone else's medication, IV sedation at that, is stone cold addict behavior. To take it from your suffering child speaks volumes. This is not needing to sleep, or being depressed, this is the behavior of active addiction, when the drug you think you need outweighs your child's health, safety, and comfort.

I'm curious where she got the syringes. Most hospitals keep them locked, so did she find an unlocked cart/cabinet or bring them herself? In either case she would have had to plan to get the syringes, doubt they were just sitting out in the open.

Prayers for the boy, hope he is safe and comfortable.

[Filly]

Originally Posted by Snackcakes66

nope, not buying it. IV Versed is some serious carp. Injecting someone else's medication, IV sedation at that, is stone cold addict behavior. To take it from your suffering child speaks volumes. This is not needing to sleep, or being depressed, this is the behavior of active addiction, when the drug you think you need outweighs your child's health, safety, and comfort.

I'm curious where she got the syringes. Most hospitals keep them locked, so did she find an unlocked cart/cabinet or bring them herself? In either case she would have had to plan to get the syringes, doubt they were just sitting out in the open.

Prayers for the boy, hope he is safe and comfortable.

Snack's I wondered about the syringes as well. She is an RN herself so possibly she brought them in with her? Then she tossed them in the trash? I guess she was so whacked she didn't think to put them in the sharps container? Obviously she was whacked. Why all the blood too I wondered?

If not she did some real scheming to obtain them from inside the hospital.

This poor boy has been through hell and back.

[Angel4u2Whisper2]

What a shame! UH I just can't believe how easy it must of been for her to rationalize her behavior as she stuck that little boys IV needle in her arm. I wonder what she told herself if anything to live with what she had done?

[fhc]

http://www.wpxi.com/news/25775656/detail.html

Judge: Mom Accused Of Stealing Son's IV Drugs Not Fit To Stand Trial

[Texas Mist]

so what happens now? are they gonna just keep her locked up or send her to a mental health facility?

either way, she's off the street so she doesn't hurt herself or anyone else.

sad situation for the little boy - he doesn't have a mom to be there for him.

[2goldfish]

I believe they will treat her until she IS competent.

[MorenoI]

So sad her son could have lost his life after fighting so hard to stay alive. His father said in one article that doctors predicted he wouldn't live past 5 yrs old.