Nurse pleads guilty to replacing fentanyl with saline

A nurse who previously worked at a Florida outpatient surgical center has been convicted of stealing fentanyl and replacing the powerful pain medication with saline. Court records show that 54-year-old Catherine Shannon Dunton pleaded guilty Tuesday to tampering with a consumer product in Fort Pierce federal court. She faces up to 10 years in prison at a June 27 hearing. According to court records, Dunton worked from September 2021 to April 2022 as a circulating nurse at The Surgery Center in Jensen Beach. Investigators say she replaced the narcotic painkiller from nearly 450 vials with saline solution and then returned the adulterated vials to the center for use during surgical procedures.