Medication dosing errors cause 5 overdoses at women's prison

Prescription medication is strewn about, with pill bottles in the deep background. medicine tile pill tile medication tile / Getty Images
Prescription medication is strewn about, with pill bottles in the deep background. medicine tile pill tile medication tile / Getty Images

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - Connecticut prisons officials say errors by nurses at the state women's prison have caused five inmate methadone overdoses in recent months.

The Department of Correction tells the Hartford Courant that none of the overdoses at the York Correctional Institution in East Lyme was fatal. Two inmates had to be revived with an opioid overdose reversal drug.

One York nurse was fired in connection with two of the errors and three overdoses remain under investigation.

Agency spokeswoman Karen Martucci says 300 inmates at York were on methadone treatment last year.

She says while the percentage of dosing errors "is extremely low," the department is reviewing the methadone distribution program and adding safeguards to prevent similar incidents.

Prison workers union officials have warned of dangerous understaffing at state prisons.

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