The state Emergency Medical Services Authority has suspended a Ventura County paramedic supervisor who admitted forging documents and stealing drugs from his ambulance company for a year in what may be the largest case of its kind in California history.
State and Ventura County emergency medical officials are investigating whether patients were unknowingly injected with a salt water solution instead of the stolen painkillers morphine and Versed.
Paramedic John Wilson's license was suspended on Sept. 18 by state Emergency Medical Services Authority boss Dr. Steven Tharratt, according to enforcement records.
Four charges of professional misconduct were filed the next day, including violating state and federal emergency medical and narcotics statutes, excessive use of/or addiction to narcotics, and commission of fraudulent, corrupt or dishonest acts, EMSA enforcement records show.
No one answered the telephone at Wilson's home in Fillmore. American Medical Response, the giant ambulance company, fired Wilson in late August, state records show.
AMR spokesman Jason Sorrick confirmed Wilson no longer works for the company. He also said AMR replaced its entire stock of morphine and Versed in the region where Wilson worked after discovering his tampering.
AMR operations officials reported the theft to police and county officials, who Sorrick said are conducting separate investigations.
In documents outlining the state's accusations against Wilson, EMSA chief Nancy Steiner stated the state agency's top investigator Charles Teddington interviewed him on Sept. 8.
"Respondent admitted that his use was so great that he had no idea how many vials he had used and tampered with, and could not say definitively if any of the vials containing nothing more than saline had been administered to a patient during a response by an AMR ambulance," Steiner wrote.
Wilson said he stopped stealing narcotics in June and sought treatment for an opiate addiction. A month later, however, he began stealing medications again.
Wilson acknowledged taking the narcotics from his own vehicle, other vehicles and a secure storage area, according to the state records.
Sorrick, the AMR spokesman, said all those locks have been changed.
Call The Bee's Andrew McIntosh, (916) 321-1215.
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