Advertisement Intensive care patient faces charges of selling drugs from hospital bed Police say Lori Sullenberger sold upwards of $4,000 in heroin while at Excela Westmoreland Hospital Share Shares Copy Link Copy

A woman is accused of selling heroin from her hospital bed while she was in the intensive care unit at a Westmoreland County hospital, police said.Lori Sullenberger, 38, of Youngwood, was charged Tuesday with felony counts of possession with intent to deliver and unlawful delivery of a controlled substance, along with misdemeanor charges of possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia.VIDEO: Watch Ashlie Hardway's reportPolice also filed misdemeanor charges -- possession of a controlled substance -- against Sullenberger's boyfriend, Jason Bates, 32, of Youngwood, and Robert Rearick, 27, of Greensburg, who they say bought or possessed drugs from Sullenberger.Greensburg Police Capt. Chad Zucco said Sullenberger was a patient at Excela Westmoreland Hospital for an unrelated medical issue when hospital staff noticed unusual behavior in and out of her room."What they noticed last week was an exorbitant amount of foot traffic happening to a patient's room. Not patients coming to stay two hours, but patients coming to stay two minutes. They thought that was really odd, so they contacted security," Excela Health spokeswoman Jennifer Miele said.VIDEO: Watch Ashlie Hardway's reportZucco said Sullenberger had multiple cellphones in her room that would ring at all hours. He said visitors to her room also didn't know her last name, which made medical staff suspicious. Staff then notified Greensburg police, who conducted surveillance of the room and sent in a confidential informant to perform a buy."The confidential informant was able to purchase approximately 30 bags of heroin from her. In a subsequent search of her person and her room, they were able to confiscate 380 bags of heroin, approximately $3,800 street value," Zucco said.Zucco said police also seized $1,420 in cash. Zucco said the woman kept the drugs inside her purse and inside drawers in the room. Police are still investigating how she got the drugs inside the hospital in the first place."Definitely is one of the more unique cases, to be selling narcotics out of an intensive care unit where obviously people are trying to get help," Zucco said.Miele said hospital staff at all three of Excela's Westmoreland County locations are on the front lines of the drug addiction problem in the county, adding protocols are in place to limit the amount of painkillers prescribed to patients."Not only do we have this incident, but day after day we have patients being treated in all three of our emergency room facilities. People who are overdosing. It's very disturbing," Miele said.Sullenberger remained in the hospital Tuesday. Police are working on arrest warrants for the three suspects.