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Patient Dies After Chewing Fentanyl Patch, Facility Owners Charged

GLEN CAMPBELL (KDKA) -- The owners of a personal care home are facing charges after a patient died in their care last year.

Gary Armstrong died in May of 2015 after reportedly chewing a fentanyl patch while staying at Shirey's Personal Care Home in Glen Campbell. Fentanyl is a narcotic used to treat severe pain.

The owners, Tonya and Lance Shirey, are charged with neglect of a dependent person and endangering the welfare of a person.

On the night Armstrong died, Lance reportedly noticed him chewing "something other than food." Hours later, Lance noticed Armstrong slumped over in his wheelchair with a chewed up patch in his lap.

Armstrong was put to bed without medical care.

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Hours later Tonya Shirey went to change the patient and found him unresponsive with "bubbles coming from his mouth."

The owners did not call 911 and three hours later Armstrong was dead. Medical officials told police that he likely would have survived if paramedics had been called at the first sign of trouble.

Additionally, there are concerns surrounding the way fentanyl was administered to the patient.

Tonya and Lance Shirey were both freed on $5,000 bond.

The facility was cited twice before, once for giving a patient too much pain medication and another time for not giving a patient any pain medication.

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