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| Coroner's Jury: Drug-Related Death an Accident |
The death of a Williamsfield woman over a year ago after alleged drugs and needles were found in her home has been ruled an accident.
That was the finding of a Knox County Coroner's Jury Tuesday night looking into the death of 33-year old Christa Galbreath.
Williamsfield Police Chief John Kellogg testified he and ambulances were summoned to Galbreath's home on West Kentucky Avenue in June of 2007, when she was found unresponsive lying in a bed.
Galbreath was eventually taken to a Galesburg hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
Kellogg says numerous hypodermic needles and vials of morphine – both filled and unfilled – were found in the room, something Galbreath's husband Josh told police he knew nothing about, because he says he didn't get into her belongings.
But Illinois State Police Investigative Unit Sergeant Michael Scheckel testified later that when he tried to interview Josh Galbreath about the case, he found he couldn't because an attorney advised Josh not to.
Scheckel does say among other things, he looked into Christa Galbreath's personnel file at O-S-F Saint Francis Medical Center in Peoria where she was a charge nurse, and says a letter indicates she had been admonished prior to her death for withdrawing a high number of morphine vials she claimed were needed for patients, but later had to discard after finding out the orders were filled.
Two other bottles of prescription medication had also been found in Galbreath's home that were for patients that had recently been in the emergency room at Saint Francis.
The coroner's jury officially found Christa Galbreath's death to be an accidental overdose due to morphine toxicity. Coroner Mark Thomas says that much morphine ingested could cause someone's respiratory system to collapse.
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| 10 28 08 by Newsroom |
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