Lower Saucon Surgeon Accused of Fentanyl Theft Approved for ARD

A Lower Saucon Township man and former surgeon at St. Luke’s University Hospital in Fountain Hill accused of taking the powerful opioid painkiller Fentanyl from a patient’s room in January and then injecting himself with the drug has successfully completed inpatient rehabilitation for addiction and has been accepted into the Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition (ARD) program for first-time offenders, which means his record could be expunged if he completes the program successfully, Lehigh Valley Live reported Tuesday.

Scott Keeney, D.O., 41, of the 2000 block of Pheasant Court, will serve two years of probation and receive regular drug testing during that time, and as a condition of acceptance into the ARD program he was drug-tested and found not to be under the influence of any illegal drug, per Judge Robert Steinberg, the article indicated.

Keeney was originally charged with felony Obtaining a Controlled Substance by Fraud or Misrepresentation–defined under Pennsylvania law as “the acquisition or obtaining of possession of a controlled substance by misrepresentation, fraud, forgery, deception or subterfuge”–and misdemeanor possession of a controlled substance as part of a series of prescription fraud investigations by Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro and Lehigh County District Attorney Jim Martin.

In April his medical license was suspended on orders from the Pennsylvania Board of Osteopathic Medicine and the Pennsylvania Board of Medicine, meaning he cannot currently practice medicine in the Commonwealth.

Keeney reportedly became addicted to painkillers following a freak accident at a Knoebels Amusement Park campground last summer in which a large tree fell on his family’s campsite and he suffered a fractured skull and spinal column. Other family members were also injured in the accident.