On August 12, 2025, Kristen Carotenuto — a 35-year-old surgical nurse at an outpatient surgical center in Stamford, Connecticut — was sentenced to five months in federal prison after pleading guilty to one count of tampering with a consumer product following a joint investigation by the FDA's Office of Criminal Investigations, the DEA's Hartford Diversion Control Division, and Connecticut drug-control regulators. Carotenuto had been granted access to the facility's secure controlled-substance storage, where she removed multiple vials of hydromorphone and fentanyl, transported them home, drew the narcotics out with a syringe for her own personal use, and then refilled the emptied vials with saline or plain water before returning them to the storage area where they could be pulled for administration to surgical patients. The investigation determined that no patient ultimately received one of the tampered vials, though each returned vial represented a sealed container indistinguishable from a legitimate dose of pain medication. U.S. District Judge Vernon D. Oliver imposed the five-month prison term alongside three years of supervised release and a $5,000 fine. Carotenuto surrendered her nursing license. Every patient scheduled for a procedure at that center during the diversion period had no way of knowing whether their IV pain control held medicine or water.