Former Buffalo Nurse Pleads Guilty To Stealing Pain Medications Intended For Patients From Local Hospital

CONTACT:      Barbara Burns
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BUFFALO, N.Y.-U.S. Attorney William J. Hochul Jr. announced today that Leyla Samadi, 54, formerly of Buffalo, NY, currently of St. Mary’s County, Maryland, pleaded guilty to illegally obtaining controlled substances by fraud. The charge carries a maximum penalty of four years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

“This nurse not only stole pain medicine intended for patients, she refilled the medicine bottles with useless saline to conceal her tracks,” said U. S. Attorney Hochul.  “Because Samadi then returned the tampered bottles to the dispenser, it’s possible that  deserving patients received nothing more potent than water.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney George C. Burgasser, who is handling the case, stated that between November 22, 2014 and January 7, 2015, the defendant tampered with pain medications Demerol and Hydromorphone while working as a registered nurse at Sisters of Charity Hospital in Buffalo.

Samadi, while working in her capacity as a nurse, would log into a Pyxis machine which is used to automatically dispense liquid pain medications using her username and fingerprint scan. The defendant would identify the narcotic and patient it would be administered to. But rather than administer the medication to the patient, Samadi would instead inject herself with the narcotic. The defendant then replaced the missing medication with saline solution and returned it to the Pyxis machine. Once she returned the vile to the Pyxis machine, Samadi would cancel the transaction claiming that she had selected the wrong medication or the wrong patient. 

This is the second time in three days there has been a development involving a medical professional accused of inappropriately utilizing controlled substances. On Monday, Dr. Pravin Mehta was sentenced to 24 months in prison for illegally prescribing massive quantities of pain medications.  

The plea is the culmination of an investigation by the Food and Drug Administration, Office of Criminal Investigations, under the direction of Acting Special Agent in Charge Spencer Morrison, the New York State Attorney General’s Office, under the direction of Eric T. Schneiderman, New York State Department of Health, Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement, under the direction of Joshua Vinciguerra, and the New York State Office of the Attorney General, Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, under the direction of Chief Upstate Investigator Upstate William Falk.