Facilities in Burnsville, Eagan involved
By Frederick Melo
fmelo@pioneerpress.com
Updated: 03/10/2010 12:32:15 AM CST
A Bloomington health aide faces charges she snuck Oxycontin, a prescription pain medication, out of the cabinet of an 89-year-old patient at a Burnsville care center, replacing the pills with ibuprofen.
And an Eagan nurse faces charges she stole prescription drugs from an Eagan senior care facility.
The cases are unrelated, though both women were charged by the Dakota County attorney's office this month.
In the first case, Margaret Alice Mammen, 53, of Bloomington, faces multiple charges in connection with the theft of Oxycontin from a Burnsville assisted-living facility. The facility, which was not named in the criminal complaint, informed Burnsville police Oct. 7 that medications had been disappearing since July.
Mammen had been hired there as a home health aide in January 2009. When she arrived for work Oct. 8, the facility's director met with her and told her she had been caught on surveillance video stealing pain medication from an 89-year-old woman who has a history of diabetes and fractures, according to the charges.
The patient's daughter had reported in late February that 90 Oxycontin pills were missing from her mother's apartment. She said she often found her mother leaning with her head on the counter because of pain, the charges state.
They discovered that her pain medication had been replaced with ibuprofen, which is medically dangerous because of the woman's diabetes and kidney problems.
When questioned by police, Mammen allegedly admitted to stealing the pills and said: "I'm very, very sorry for it," and, "Because I got away with it ... I thought I could get away with it again."
The patient's daughter later reported that her mother's condition had improved and she was participating in regular activities at the facility.
Mammen has been charged with two felony counts of theft of a controlled substance and two gross misdemeanors — mistreatment of residents or patients and criminal neglect. If convicted, she faces up to 10 years in prison.
In the second case, Jessica Dumpprope, 38, of Eagan, faces charges she ordered several different prescriptions for residents at an unnamed Eagan senior care center but never wrote down the prescriptions in the facility's records.
Dumpprope, a licensed practical nurse, admitted, according to charges, that she had been stealing medications for about a year using the names of residents who had died or no longer needed a prescription.
The charges state she stole about four to six tablets a day, primarily the painkiller Vicodin.
Dumpprope was charged with two counts of theft of a controlled substance by false representation, a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
Neither Mammen nor Dumpprope could be reached for comment Tuesday.