SEATTLE (AP) – A respiratory therapist at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center has been sentenced to three months in prison for stealing a ventilator and other medical equipment during the COVID-19 pandemic and selling them on eBay.
Gene Wamsley must remain on nine months of home confinement once he’s released from prison under the sentence ordered Monday by a federal judge.
Officials launched an investigation in January 2020 when the medical center reported two bronchoscopes, used for examining a patient’s airway, were missing.
A third bronchoscope was reported missing three months later.
Wamsley admitted stealing the three machines and selling them on eBay.
Wamsley also stole a respirator and ventilators.