A former Spring Wind Assisted Living facility nurse made her initial appearance in court on March 20 for charges stemming from allegations she stole pain medication from patients at the facility.
Andra Cousins admitted to “resealing medicine packages and labels often,” according to an affidavit of probable cause. Cousins’ husband said he suspected she was “abusing medications again” and he “found an empty blister pack of controlled medications” that she admitted came from the assisted living facility.
Seven labels of the pain reliever Tramadol covered the labels of Tylenol, Lasix and Vitamin D for two different patients; meaning large quantities of the pain reliever were missing. Weston Kelly, the police officer who wrote the affidavit of probable cause, determined up to 150 pills of Tramadol were missing through switching labels in an effort to keep pill counts the same. Patients received the wrong medication through this deception.
Kelly said he interviewed the daughter of one of these patients whose medications were tampered with. The daughter said Cousins called her often to tell her the patient’s medication supply was dangerously low. The daughter said Cousins was the only nurse at Spring Wind who called her about her mother’s low medication supply. The daughter would purchase the medication at a pharmacy and bring it to Spring Wind.
The patient told her daughter she felt she was going to die, and Spring Wind staff determined she took approximately 10 times more Lasix than she was prescribed for at least eight days.
Joanne Steane, the University of Wyoming student health service director, said Lasix could cause many harmful side effects if overused.
Steane said the symptoms of an overdose of Lasix include severe dehydration, low blood pressure and low blood potassium. These can lead to muscle weakness, abnormal heart rhythm, confusion and nausea in a patient.
Cousins faces two felony charges, abuse, neglect, abandonment, intimidation or exploitation of a vulnerable adult and attempting to possess a controlled substance. She also faces a misdemeanor theft under $1,000 charge.
Andra Cousins, pictured above, faces a two felony charges after she allegedly stole medicine from a patient at Spring Wind Nursing Home. She has been accused of neglecting a patient in her care and faces up to 12 years imprisonment.
