HONESDALE, PA — The former nursing director at a Honesdale medical facility, Karen Felder, was arrested on March 3, and accused of stealing the drug Fentanyl. According to Wayne County District Attorney Janine Edwards, Feldner, 56, was arraigned on charges that she stole large amounts of the drug from the Mountain Laurel Surgery Center in Honesdale, and bail was set at $75,000.

In October 2016, the facility reported that nearly 100 Fentanyl vials had been tampered with, with most of the powerful opioid drug being removed from the vials and replaced with a saline solution. Feldner is accused of performing the tampering and also with falsification of documents, forging signatures and falsely claiming authority to obtain the drug. She has been fired from her position.

Fentanyl is a controlled substance used in medical procedures for anesthesia and also widely used illegally by people who are addicted to opioids. It is also being mixed with heroin. In both forms, it is the cause of a growing number of deaths in Pennsylvania and the United States.

According to a report from the Centers for Disease Control, the number of people in the United States who died from an overdose of Fentanyl doubled from 2013 to 2014, with the total being 4,200 or a rate of 13 deaths per 1 million people, and that rate almost certainly continued to climb in subsequent years.

Edwards said, “Fentanyl is not just another opioid. It is highly addictive and potentially lethal. I am proud of the work done on this case by Wayne County DA Chief Detective Peter Hower and the Drug Enforcement Administration to ensure not only that criminal charges were filed but also having a concern for the potential safety of others. We are in dangerous times with the drug epidemic gripping our county. This particular crime not only fed the appetite of an addict but risked the lives of patients. It was selfish and reckless and must be prosecuted vigilantly.”