A former oral surgeon who admitted to tampering with and diluting hundreds of doses of the painkiller fentanyl was sentenced Wednesday to 24 months in prison.
Andrew Hartwig, a licensed Iowa dentist since 1993, was found in 2019 to have siphoned fentanyl from at least 299 vials, some of which were later administered to patients.
Federal prosecutors say he took the stolen fentanyl himself and suffered from a “serious drug addiction.”
According to court filings, a nurse at the Oral Surgery and Dental Implant Center of Iowa City, where he worked, reported a box of fentanyl vials appeared to have been opened and then taped shut.
After the other surgeons working there changed the security code and installed a new security camera outside the practice’s drug safe, Hartwig contacted the Iowa Dental Board to report he had “skimmed” fentanyl from his office to deal with chronic low-back pain.
The tampering took place over at least a three-month span in 2019, but prosecutors note in court filings there were other reports of possibly misappropriated fentanyl at the practice dating back years, in one case involving the discovery of a stash of vials with expiration dates as early as 2015.
According to court filings, Hartwig would use a syringe to partially empty fentanyl vials and then refill them with other liquids.
Federal Drug Administration testing of 14 random samples found the adulterated vials contained solutions of anywhere from 5% to 99% fentanyl, and six of the 14 were contaminated with bacteria.
Prosecutors say the practice did not receive any patient complaints of infection or insufficient pain management related to the watered-down drugs.
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