An Armstrong County man is accused of stealing powerful pain medications from Mercy Jeannette Hospital and diluting hospital drug supplies to conceal the theft.

Frank Glomb, 33, of Apollo, was a registered nurse at the Westmoreland County hospital at the time the drugs were taken, according to the state attorney general's office. He has been charged with three drug-related felony counts related to the illegal acquiring or possession of morphine, Dilaudid and Demerol, according to a criminal complaint.

He also faces a misdemeanor charge of reckless endangerment for allegedly replacing the liquid medication with saline solution or other substances, and placing the altered items back into use for patient care.

Mr. Glomb appeared for preliminary arraignment on Tuesday before Jeannette District Judge Joseph DeMarchis and was released on $25,000 unsecured bail. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Thursday.

In a prepared statement, Attorney General Tom Corbett said his office was contacted by hospital investigators in October after Mr. Glomb allegedly suffered a seizure while on duty, resulting in the discovery of empty syringes and other drug-related items.

According to a police affidavit, Mr. Glomb admitted to hospital and law enforcement authorities that for several months he had diverted narcotics from the hospital for his own use. He told police he would cut open boxes of injectable narcotics, remove half the liquid narcotics and replace them with saline, then glue the vials or boxes back together before returning them to stock.

Mr. Glomb said he "could not put a definitive number" on the amount of drugs he had altered or how many of them had been returned to stock or administered to patients, the affidavit noted.

Patti Buhl, a Mercy Jeannette spokeswoman, said an internal audit of patient charts found "no indication patients were complaining of uncontrolled pain."