Updated: Former nurse convicted of stealing morphine from patient at University of Michigan Medical Center

Dobbins suffered from several debilitating conditions caused by spinal meningitis, which she contracted at 3 months old. She gradually went blind, was prone to seizures and couldn’t walk or talk on her own.

Shortly after her 26th birthday in August 2008, LaKrisha Dobbins contracted pneumonia and was hospitalized for about a week before her parents placed her on comfort care. The goal of the care is to keep terminal patients as comfortable as possible until they die naturally.

Najer, better known to colleagues as Becky, was not the attending nurse. But she entered Dobbins’ room four times throughout the day and used a syringe to take the drug, witnesses testified. Family members reported the incidents to hospital staff, and Najer was suspended after her supervisors determined that at least 22 cubic centimeters, deemed a significant amount, of the powerful narcotic meant for Dobbins were missing.

Reading from a thick binder, county Assistant Prosecutor Dianna Collins said Najer was admitted to St. Joseph Mercy Hospital in May 2008 and was diagnosed with a chemical dependency.

During her treatment there, Najer tested positive for opiates, acknowledged smoking marijuana at least twice a month, and said she frequently bought Tylenol with codeine from Canada, where it is available without a prescription. She said she took eight tablets daily for neck and back pain.

Esther Najer also went to other great lengths to feed her addiction, including taking painkillers prescribed to her mother and her own dog, Collins read.

“There’s really no explanation for what she did other than to feed her own addiction,” Collins said in her closing argument.

Christopher Title, Najer’s supervisor, testified that two days before she went to St. Joseph Mercy Hospital last year, he found her “out of sorts.” He said she thought she was at her home when she was sitting next to a patient in a private room. He said she appeared to be intoxicated and had difficulty walking with him to the emergency room for an evaluation.

Najer returned to work about 6 weeks later. Title testified he found no impropriety during a review of drugs administered to Najer’s patients in the previous six months. Yet the same day Dobbins died, a 100-cubic centimeter IV bag of morphine that was pulled for another patient under Najer’s care in the critical care unit went missing and was never found, he said.

Najer was fired about two weeks later.

Neither of Najer’s attorneys mentioned the substance abuse issues, nor did they to refute them. Instead, Debra Keehn and Robin Stephens argued the nurse’s supervisors miscalculated the morphine used for Dobbins.

“Nothing’s missing,” Keehn said during her opening statement. “There’s a math error, and errors in the records. You can’t have a larceny if nothing is missing.”

Their lone witness, veteran U-M nurse Kathleen O’Brien D’Andrea, testified she found a large discrepancy in the amount of morphine used for Dobbins between nurses’ reports and computerized records.

But Collins argued O’Brien D’Andrea didn’t account for “overfill,” a term noting excess fluid in the IV bag used to fill the line connected to the patient’s arm.

O’Brien D’Andrea acknowledged she was paid $7,000 for roughly 30 hours of work on the case.

Najer’s attorneys questioned several of her colleagues about the chaos of working in an environment with a high mortality rate, and how common it is to assist with each other’s assigned patients. They also established using a syringe was a common way of removing potentially dangerous air pockets from IV lines before they reach the patient.

But neither asserted that’s what Najer was doing in Dobbins’ room, and prosecutors showed there were no problems with Dobbins’ IV equipment that day.

Najer declined comment as she left the courtroom after the verdict.

Najer was scheduled for a jury trial last month, but it was postponed when she requested a trial before Swartz only. The shift in strategy came after prosecutors indicated they would use Najer’s medical and personnel records as evidence.

Though Swartz acquitted Najer of one larceny count, Jeanette Birton, Dobbins’ mother, said she was satisfied with the verdict.

“… I just hope she gets some help for herself,” Birton said.

Najer remains free on bond and faces up to four years in prison on each count at sentencing Jan. 7.

Art Aisner is a freelance writer for AnnArbor.com. Reach the news desk at news@annarbor.com or 734-623-2530.