Angela Broihahn, a former Wisconsin nursing home aide, was charged with six counts of patient abuse, one count of attempted nursing home patient abuse, and four counts of possession of narcotic drugs in connection to reportedly stealing pain medication patches from three residents at St. Mary’s Care Center.

On March 11, 2010, facility Director William Bender caught Broihahn red-handed with three Fentanyl patches in her purse, all with the initials of the nurses who had placed them on the residents.

Reportedly, one resident complained to a facility nurse that an employee she did not know would visit her often, rub her back and was “huggy”. On March 6, a nurse found that a pain patch placed on a resident the previous day was missing. A few days later, the same thing happened again.

Patches were reportedly stolen from a 63 year-old terminally ill resident. A third resident, an 88 year-old woman, told police that “Angie” was trying to take her patches on March 9, but she stopped her.

Fentanyl patches are three day pain patches that must be administered by a nurse. They take up to 24 hours to reach maximum effectiveness and 24 hours after the patch is removed, the pain medication has left the body.