Pharmacist Befriends Recovered Addict She Once Reported

A pharmacist was initially fearful when a woman she recognized as a customer she had turned in for forged prescriptions appeared at her counter.

Deb Hageter told Alaska Dispatch News she thought the customer might be coming back for revenge. Instead, the woman, Catherine Adcock, told her, “I’m here to thank you for saving my life.”

Tears and hugs ensued, and the 2 women have been close friends since the day Adcock appeared at Hageter’s pharmacy last summer to say thanks.

Adcock, a former medical assistant who at times took up to 60 pills per day, recently graduated from Anchorage Wellness Court, a program operated by the Alaska Court System. At the graduation ceremony on April 30, 2015, Adcock won the Outstanding Graduate award and publicly thanked Hageter for intervening.

“I prayed to get caught. I prayed and prayed, because I couldn’t stop,” Adcock told Alaska Dispatch News.

After turning Adcock in to police back in 2012, Hageter recalled to Alaska Dispatch News that she had told her coworkers, “Nobody’s going to die on my watch.” The pharmacist said she was grateful that she was not going to be the one to give Adcock her last, potentially fatal dose of pills.

Hageter’s intervention resulted in Adcock facing 48 charges related to possession of controlled substances, fraud, and forgery. Adcock’s 14-week therapeutic program allowed her to avoid felony convictions, however, and she pleaded guilty to a forgery misdemeanor.

With nearly 3 years of sobriety under her belt, Adcock said the program taught her skills for clean living, according to Alaska Dispatch News.

Whenever Adcock is in the area, she stops by to visit Hageter, and the 2 check in with each other via text. Hageter also keeps a memento in her pocket: a coin celebrating Adcock’s 2-year mark of sobriety.

“It reminds me to just be kind every day,” Hageter told Alaska Dispatch News.