By Brandi Watters, Herald Bulletin Staff Writer
ANDERSON — When former Ball Memorial Hospital nurse Gina Hiatt took the first pain pill in her prescription, she was aiming to rid herself of the stabbing pains in her back.
The next few medications helped keep the pain away.
Eventually though, Hiatt was no longer taking the pills for pain. She had become addicted.
“At some point, really, I don’t even know when the back pain stopped,” Hiatt said.
Hiatt’s story is not unique, not anymore.
Dr. Linda Burns, an emergency medicine physician with Community Hospital, said doctors are seeing an increasing number of pill-seeking patients in the emergency room, those who have become addicted to the pills meant to treat them.
“We see people that we have seen over time in the ER that we have come to believe are utilizing the ER to get their prescription medications for personal use or to sell,” Burns said.
Burns said pill addicts and drug-seekers cross all socioeconomic lines. “We have people in their 70s that come in.”
The Office of National Drug Control Policy said the problem is surpassing street drugs like cocaine and heroin in popularity.
“Abuse of prescription drugs to get high has become increasingly prevalent among teens and young adults. Past year abuse of prescription pain killers now ranks second, only behind marijuana, as the nation’s most prevalent illegal drug problem.”
Burns said she sees a patient suspected of seeking unnecessary pain pills about twice a day.
Burns said the rise in pill addiction has changed the way doctors prescribe medication.
“I think it’s changed somewhat, probably more in the amount of medication we give. We’re cautious. We still err on the side of give them a few narcotic pain pills rather than having the concern that they have a true pain.”
With a promising career in the medical field and a stable home life, Hiatt admits she didn’t fit the mold of a drug addict, but it didn’t matter.
She began diverting pain medications from her patients, ordering meds they didn’t need, and then picking up the prescriptions for herself.
Sometimes she didn’t need to steal the meds since she could con the doctors into writing her a prescription.
“I think it’s even easier when you’re a nurse at a hospital. You know all the doctors that are there. They knew me and saw me every day. Even doctors that were not my doctors prescribed medication for me when I worked at the hospital. It’s not their fault. They really thought I needed it.”
Hiatt was eventually caught stealing pills from her patients and soon surrendered her nursing license in 2004.
Burns said Hiatt’s story is not surprising.
“It’s definitely a danger of being in the field when you have easy access to that medication.”
Although the pill addiction continues to grow, Burns said hospitals are working to prevent unnecessary prescriptions.
Burns said a new database developed in 2009 catalogs patients who are prescribed medications that are often abused, allowing doctors to see a pattern and catch potential fraud.
Eight years after becoming addicted to prescription pain pills, Hiatt is clean and working in Fort Wayne as a nurse.
She recently helped Anderson police develop a video helping deter others from becoming addicted to prescription medication.
Contact Brandi Watters 640-4847, brandi.watters@heraldbulletin.com
