After being fired at Mount Sinai, a Kendall nurse swapped surgery fentanyl for saline
Being a fentanyl thief while working at Miami Beach’s Mount Sinai Medical Center cost a registered nurse his nursing license and a little freedom. Doing the same thing while working at HCA Kendall Hospital cost Emmanuel Valentin the rest of his freedom.
Valentin, 40, was sentenced in Miami federal court Monday to two years, two months in federal prison after pleading guilty to tampering with consumer products, specifically swapping fentanyl for saline while at HCA Kendall. He was already on state probation until May 15, 2027, for theft of a controlled substance and possession of a controlled substance, crimes that occurred while he worked at Mount Sinai.
READ MORE: A nurse employed by hospitals in Miami Beach and Kendall swapped fentanyl for saline
The Mount Sinai fentanyl thefts got Valentin fired in March 2023. Despite this, Valentin got hired at HCA Kendall, formerly known as Kendall Regional, in July 2023.
“At the time HCA Kendall hired Valentin, they were not aware that Mount Sinai had fired him for diversion of fentanyl in March 2023,” Valentin’s admission of facts with his guilty plea says. “It is not known if this was inadequate reporting to the Board of Nursing or for some other reason. Valentin did not disclose that his prior employment was terminated and why.”
An email sent by the Herald to HCA Kendall Human Resources through the hospital’s website hasn’t been answered yet.
According to state documents, Mount Sinai filed a complaint on Sept. 19, 2023, with the Florida Department of Health about Valentin’s fentanyl “diversion” in March. That complaint was filed 29 days after HCA Kendall filed a complaint with the Department of Health about Valentin’s fentanyl thefts there.
An FDA expert anesthesiologist Dr. Arthur Simone was prepared to testify, “Fentanyl injections are used to provide pain and relief during and after surgery” and “fentanyl is often used in conjunction with other medicines (including midazolam) before and during an operation as part of the overall anesthesia plan.”
Caught on camera
HCA Kendall required nurses to get fentanyl and midazolam from a Pyxis machine. Staffers entered their personal access code and fingerprint, get drug vials, count the vials left and enter that number in the Pyxis machine.
On Aug. 16, 2023, a co-worker coming into came into a room with a Pyxis machine and saw Valentin holding an opened vial of midazolam with the seal removed.
“The seal should not have been broken until it was being administered to the patient,” Valentin’s guilty plea says. The co-worker saw “the vial was only half full. Valentine explained that he had mistakenly thought that (the co-worker’s) patient was his patient and that was why he was removing the midazolam vial.”
Upon hearing of this incident, HCA Kendall checked surveillance video for the four labs with Pyxis machines from Aug. 9 through Aug. 16, 2023. What they saw:
“Valentin would remove fentanyl and midazolam vials from the Pyxis machine and remove the drug from the vial with a syringe and insert saline solution from an IV bag in its place.”
“Valentine would retrieve discarded vials from the biohazard waste bin and re-use them with saline to replace fentanyl vials he would steal.”
