Jerome F. Gorgon, Jr., U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Michigan | Department of Justice
A registered nurse from Grosse Pointe Park, Michigan, has been sentenced to two years in federal prison for tampering with vials of fentanyl at Ascension St. John Hospital. Travis Eskridge, 54, admitted to removing fentanyl from vials intended for patients in the hospital’s emergency room and replacing it with another liquid before returning the altered vials to the locked drug storage system. He also confessed to stealing fentanyl vials for personal use between May and August 2022.
United States Attorney Jerome F. Gorgon Jr. announced the sentencing and said, “When nurse Eskridge placed tampered vials back into the hospital’s medical supply, he exposed patients in desperate need of pain relief to continued suffering. This is a reprehensible crime. No medical professional should torture a patient. I credit the hospital and the FDA investigators for their work in exposing this crime.”
Special Agent in Charge Ronne Malham of the FDA Office of Criminal Investigations Chicago Field Office joined Gorgon in making the announcement. Malham stated, “Emergency room patients trust they will be administered the pain relief drugs that the doctor ordered. We will continue to pursue and bring to justice healthcare professionals who violate their position of trust and jeopardize patients’ health and well-being by tampering with their pain medications.”
Eskridge was removed from his position at Ascension St. John Hospital as soon as the tampering and thefts were discovered in August 2022. The case was investigated by special agents from the Food and Drug Administration and sentencing was handed down by United States District Judge Susan K. DeClercq.
