Nurses Allege Hospital Ignored Drug Abuse, Patient Deaths Linked to Negligent Nurse
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Two former nurses are suing Heritage Valley Sewickley Hospital in Pennsylvania, alleging the facility ignored a nurse's substance abuse for eight years, which they claim contributed to two patient deaths and involved fraudulent billing.
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A pair of nurses at a Pennsylvania hospital are blowing the whistle on the facility, claiming it ignored substance abuse problems in one of its other nurses and that his negligence may have contributed to two patients' deaths.
Jennifer Duckett and Samantha Gallo — the former nurses — sued Heritage Valley Sewickley Hospital in Sewickley, Pennsylvania, in April 2025, but the filing was sealed until earlier this month, according to PennLive. The lawsuit names Heritage Valley Health System, its executives, doctors and nurse managers as defendants.
In the filing, Duckett and Gallo accuse a nurse of stealing “controlled substances from Heritage Valley to satiate his known drug addiction” for the last eight years. It further claims that reports made about Chismire's alleged behavior were ignored.
The women include numerous alleged examples of the nurse stealing drugs, hiding away during his shift and getting high in the hospital. In one example, they claim that the nurse stole morphine that was meant to go to a patient experiencing "severe pain." They said Chismire's alleged drug use was widely known even among the hospital's management, PennLive reports.
The former nurses said the “nursing managers have grown numb to [the nurse’s] criminal conduct and illegally accept it as the norm.”
The Independent has requested comment from Heritage Valley Sewickley and the nurse. On Wednesday morning, the hospital's website appeared to be down.
The lawsuit also claims that two patients connected to the nurse have died; a 70-year-old woman and a 47-year-old man.
The woman died after the nurse allegedly left her waiting to received treatment for hours after she arrived at the hospital. She died of an unspecified "medication error."
As for the 47-year-old, he was reportedly neglected after checking himself in with symptoms related to alcohol withdrawal. The filing claims that the man never receive care and was later found dead in his car from a head injury.
The lawsuit also accuses the hospital of engaging in fraudulent billing to obfuscate the drugs allegedly taken by the nurse. It claims the hospital fixed its books to make it seem as though the drugs were used for valid medical purposes.
The nurse worked at Heritage Valley until early 2026, and its unclear if they are still employed by the facility.
The plaintiffs in the case are seeking compensatory and punitive damages.
