By Paul Harasim
Las Vegas Review-Journal
Copyright 2007 Las Vegas Review-Journal
All Rights Reserved
CLARK COUNTY, Nev. — Worried that a dope-crazed paramedic could have tampered with their painkillers, Clark County Fire Department officials have replaced the entire stock of narcotics for their ambulances.
“We want to ensure the safety of controlled medications we use on our patients,” said Dr. Dale Carrison, medical director of the fire department. “We don’t want to take any chances that a rogue paramedic could have compromised safety.”
The department obtained about 800 new tubes or vials of morphine, an opium-based painkiller, and of the anti-anxiety drugs Versed and Valium, and 200 new vials of etomidate, a deep sedation drug, Carrison said.
The extraordinary action Monday by the state’s largest paid fire department comes after Sunday’s arrest of 35-year-old Samuel Bond, a Clark County firefighter and paramedic who Las Vegas police allege burglarized fire stations and ambulances to steal drugs.
Carrison said officials were concerned that Bond might have emptied or partially emptied vials of medicine and refilled them with some other substance. Officials also said they hope Bond did not supply a drug habit by shortchanging patients and pocketing the remainder of drugs that should have been used to relieve their pain.
“If he was on an ambulance treating a patient with morphine, I would hate to think he’d do that,” fire department spokesman Scott Allison said. “We don’t have any evidence of him saving morphine for himself. But with him, it is obvious that anything is possible.”
Bond’s case, labeled a “tragedy on many levels” by Carrison, took another twist Tuesday when Nevada Deputy Attorney General Conrad Hafen announced that his office will prosecute Bond. Clark County District Attorney David Roger’s office has a conflict of interest in the case because Bond’s mother works there.
Bond remained in the Clark County Detention Center on Tuesday night on $88,000 bail. He was booked on 22 felony counts, including eight counts of burglary, four counts of auto burglary and two counts of possessing dangerous drugs.
Though Bond is accused of targeting AMR and Medic West ambulances also, neither company plans to change out its drugs.
John Wilson, general manager of both businesses, said that Bond never had the access to the drug supplies of AMR and Medic West that he had at the Fire Department.
Bond only got drugs from an AMR ambulance by breaking off a lock, and he failed in his attempt to obtain drugs from Medic West, police have said.
“He worked for the fire department, so that is obviously different,” Wilson said.
Bond had worked for the department for more than six years, most recently at Station 12 on Industrial Road near Desert Inn Road. Fire department officials placed Bond on unpaid administrative leave Friday, Allison said.
Carrison said that some packages of drugs used by the department’s paramedics had been tampered with during the flurry of burglaries stretching back to at least mid-July, but tests found that none contained foreign substances, he said.
During that 2½ month period leading up to Bond’s arrest, “anything with a seal that had been broken was thrown away,” Carrison said.
After the arrest, the whole supply was disposed of. Replacing the drugs will cost less than $10,000, Carrison said. “They’re all generics,” he said.
Lingering questions remain about the amount of drugs stolen.
Carrison said some boxes of narcotics disappeared while Bond was on the job.
Also, a paramedic would be able to steal drugs while on duty by simply being dishonest and not following Fire Department protocol.
When paramedics come off duty, a log book must be signed, noting how much medication they used on their patients during their shift, Allison said.
Also, a paramedic is supposed to throw away any leftover painkiller not completely used on a patient while in an ambulance.
When a paramedic has medication left, Allison said, department protocol calls for him to have someone, often a fellow employee or nurse or doctor, sign as a witness to the disposal of the leftover medication.
Whether Bond allowed some patients to suffer so he could keep medication for himself probably would be impossible to know, Carrison said.
Allison said no other emergency medical services personnel reported that they had seen Bond keeping medication.
Rory Chetelat, manager for the Southern Nevada Health District EMS and Trauma System office, said the system of tracking drugs used by paramedics is working.
“We will do a review to just make sure we haven’t missed anything,” he said.
Controlled substances are bought for the Clark County Fire Department under Carrison’s DEA license.
“This is a tragedy on several levels,” Carrison said. “It’s a tragedy of course for the individual who became addicted. The other tragedy is that he is giving a bad name to a number of outstanding paramedics.”
Clark County Fire Department has about 170 paramedics.
Carrison, who is also head of adult emergency services at the University Medical Center, said he is dumbfounded that Bond did not ask for help.
Police said that at the scene of one of his break-ins, Bond left a note: “I took your medicine. I have a bad problem. Please forgive me.”
“All he had to do was say he was sick, ‘I’m addicted,’” Carrison said. “We would have given him help. Doctors ask for help, and so do lawyers. You hope that you’re intelligent enough to say ‘I need help’ if you’re ever in a situation like this.”