Seattle Respiratory Therapist Sentenced For Stealing COVID Equipment

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.