Harrison Thorp 11:36 a.m.
Thursday, September 8, 2016 11:34 am

AUGUSTA, Maine - An investigation into whether Lebanon Fire and Rescue personnel were told to use expired supplies has ended with investigators saying they found no merit to the complaint.

Maine Emergency Medical Services Director Shaun St. Germain said today his investigators had looked into the claim that was stated in an anonymous July 12 letter by someone claiming to be a department member, but that the probe was over.

"There was nothing to go one beyond the anonymous letter, there was no one to talk to," St. Germain said, adding investigators did, however, speak to the chief, Dan Meehan.

St. Germain said the department will now just be subject to regular annual inspections of supplies like any other department.

The anonymous letter had contained what it had purported to be an interoffice memo in which a member of the department apparently notes, "Yes we are very low on supplies at this time, so please be patient," later urging staff to go ahead and use expired supplies.

"Also being that we are so low for now I'm asking you to please use the supplies we have some have expired they are still good if the packaging is OK (quote is verbatim, no punctuation)," the note said.

St. Germain said before the probe began that the use of expired supplies, while concerning, likely wouldn't result in any drastic or punitive action.

"We wouldn't take an ambulance out of service over it, but we would advise them not to use expired supplies," St. Germain said at the time.

A production coordinator at Rose Medical, a Michigan medical device manufacturing company, said medical supplies that have expiration dates are normally those that are sterilized and rely on gases inside the packaging to keep them sterile.

"When those gases expire, they (the supplies) are no longer sterile whether the packaging is intact or not," Mary Holwerda said earlier this summer.

The Lebanon Voice attempted to contact Meehan for comment on this story, but was unsuccessful.