Page 12 - IAV Digital Magazine #459

iAV - Antelope Valley Digital Magazine
Mom Stole Dying Daughter’s Painkillers To Feed Her Opioid Addiction, Missouri Cops Say
By Jared Gilmour
A Missouri moth- er has confessed to stealing opioid painkillers intend- ed for her termi- nally-ill daughter, and instead tak- ing the drugs her- self, according to police.
Medical workers caring for the dying 20-year-old woman called police Monday because they were worried the patient’s mother, Carol Ballweg, wasn’t giving her daughter the oxy- codone and fen- tanyl prescribed to treat her pain, Troy police said in a press release Wednesd ay.
Those concerns
were well-found- ed: A urine test on the dying patient from Sept. 7 revealed that there were “no signs of her pre- scribed medica- tion in her sys- tem,” according to police.
Medical staff car- ing for the woman, who is in hospice care, decided to stop filling her pre- scription for the drugs, police said.
Police searched Ballweg’s home on Tuesday. She confessed that she has an opioid addiction, and admitted that she had been stealing her daughter’s oxycodone to consume herself,
police said.
Ballweg was charged Wednesday with two counts of abusing a vulner- able person and four counts of stealing a con- trolled substance, police said. Her bond was set at $100,000 cash.
If Ballweg is released from custody, she’s barred from hav- ing contact with her daughter, police said.
Medical staff and home health care workers have previously report- ed suspicions about the termi- nally-ill woman’s care to a hotline, including con- cerns that
Ballweg repeat- edly asked for her daughter’s fentanyl and oxy- codone prescrip- tions ahead of schedule, police said.
Caregivers said
the daughter had also developed bedsores, police said.
Because of those previous suspi- cions and neglect reports, a Missouri
Department of Health and Senior Services investigation was already underway when law enforcement became involved this week, police said.
iAV - Antelope Valley Digital Magazine