Baltimore Nurse Sentenced for Diverting Morphine From Child

State of MD - Attorney General Anthony G. Brown announced the conviction and sentencing of Kaitlyn Elizabeth Chalmers, a licensed registered nurse. Chalmers diverted a controlled substance from the University of Maryland Medical Center's Pediatric Intensive Care Unit.

On June 25, 2025, Chalmers was caring for a 10-year-old patient recovering from open heart surgery. She was responsible for giving the child morphine for pain.

Chalmers documented that she gave the child intravenous morphine at 8:30 a.m. Around 9:18 a.m., the child told her care team she was in severe pain.

A nurse who was worried about the child's pain asked Chalmers if she had given any more morphine since the 8:30 a.m. dose. Chalmers said she gave a second dose around 11:30 a.m., but she never documented it in the child's medical records.

Chalmers claimed the child's pain was not responding to the prescribed morphine. The care team disagreed, noting the child had never taken opioids before and her pain had been well managed the day before.

During that same shift, a nurse saw Chalmers leaving a staff bathroom with bruising and bleeding on her arm. Other PICU nurses later said Chalmers appeared impaired.

UMMC asked Chalmers to take a drug screening after these reports. She refused, and she was immediately removed from the PICU floor and fired.

On June 20, 2026, Chalmers pleaded guilty to obtaining morphine by fraud. Morphine is a Schedule II controlled substance used to treat severe pain.

On September 9, 2026, Judge Alan C. Lazarow of the Circuit Court for Baltimore City sentenced Chalmers to one year, with all but 30 days suspended. She will serve two years of supervised probation.

Chalmers is barred from caring for children during her probation. She is also excluded from participating in state and federal healthcare programs.

Attorney General Brown thanked the team who worked on the case. That includes Division Director Zak Shirley, Assistant Attorneys General Carolyne Evans and Lisa Marts, Investigators Jay Beeler and Ryan Jones, and Nurse Analyst Yvette Finney of the Medicaid Fraud and Vulnerable Victims Unit.