Opinion ID: 3055142
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Beumel’s Offense

Text: From 2004 to 2010, Beumel worked as a licensed radiologic technician for Mayo Clinic’s Interventional Radiology Department. Beumel’s duties included, among others, preparing patients for procedures, obtaining necessary supplies, reloading syringes, ensuring sterility within the procedure rooms, and, sometimes, emptying containers with used needles and syringes. In performing his job, Beumel had access to syringes containing the narcotic fentanyl, a powerful, fastacting, pain reliever. In 2006, Beumel began stealing fentanyl from the Mayo Clinic by retrieving discarded syringes containing residual fentanyl, replacing the syringe needles, and injecting himself with the drug. At some point, instead of (or in addition to) 2 Case: 12-15056 Date Filed: 06/21/2013 Page: 3 of 15 obtaining discarded fentanyl from the trash, Beumel began taking unused fentanyl intended for patients undergoing various medical procedures. Specifically, if fentanyl was needed during a medical procedure, a registered nurse would take a syringe, fill it with fentanyl from a vial, mark the syringe as containing fentanyl, and place the full syringe on a cart headed to the patient. Unbeknownst to the nurse, Beumel would take the fentanyl-filled syringe, remove the safety needle, replace it with a smaller gauge needle, and inject himself with the fentanyl. Beumel would then reattach the original safety needle, fill the fentanyl-marked syringe with saline solution, and place the syringe back on the cart. The nurse would then unknowingly inject the patient with saline solution, instead of fentanyl, from the used syringe. The saline solution (marked as fentanyl) was injected into an access port on the intravenous (“IV”) tubing of a patient, not directly into the skin. At the time Beumel diverted fentanyl intended for patients, he was infected with Hepatitis C (“HCV”), a transmittable virus with no known vaccine that infects the bloodstream and can damage and destroy the liver. Beumel did not know at the time that he was infected with HCV, and it is unknown exactly when or how he was infected. Between 2007 and 2008, three Mayo Clinic patients were identified as having contracted HCV following treatment procedures at that medical facility. 3 Case: 12-15056 Date Filed: 06/21/2013 Page: 4 of 15 After an extensive investigation, healthcare investigators narrowed the cause of these infections to contamination of syringes through the diversion of fentanyl by 1 of the 21 healthcare employees assigned to the Interventional Radiology Department at the Mayo Clinic. Twenty of those employees tested negative for HCV. After initially declining to be tested, Beumel submitted and tested positive for the same unique strand of HCV found in the three infected patients. Two more patients were subsequently identified as having been infected with the same strand of HCV. The latest infection occurred on or about November 21, 2008. After several interviews with the healthcare investigators, Beumel admitted that he had been diverting fentanyl for personal use. Beumel further admitted that, sometime in late 2007, he heard a discussion about patients infected with HCV, and from then on was “very careful” not to swap used syringes for new syringes containing fentanyl. Beumel did not think that the syringes he was using would be contaminated because they were used to inject fentanyl into the IV tubing, not directly into the patient, and because he was changing the needles. Investigation also revealed that in 2004, before joining the Mayo Clinic and while working for another hospital, Beumel had been caught diverting fentanyl and sent to substance abuse treatment. As part of his treatment, Beumel was specifically informed about the risk of exposure to HCV from injections. 4 Case: 12-15056 Date Filed: 06/21/2013 Page: 5 of 15 Beumel’s drug abuse counseling and monitoring continued through April 2007, long past the date he began stealing fentanyl from the Mayo Clinic.