The nurse admitted that he drank four to five beers in a casino located close to the Medical Center.
(Mirror Daily, United States) – Doctors save lives, and nurses are, well, there to help them do just that. The job is like a surgeon’s extension, you can’t operate without someone handing you down the right instruments at the right time. The nurse may not be actually operating, but the same responsibility bestowed upon the doctor, falls on the nurse, too. That is why the nurse accused of assisting operation while severely intoxicated is risking serious jail time.
To err is human, and Richard J. Pieri, the nurse accused of assisting operation while severely intoxicated, is no more different than any other person who just wanted to have a few brewskies before going home and relax. The only thing that slipped his mind was that he was on-call.
While there are numerous instances in which on-call doctors and nurses end not being disturbed by the hospital, this was not one of those times.
After work, Pieri decided to join his friends and have a beer, or four. The only thing that transformed the relaxing night out into a professional nightmare was the fact that the nurse was on-call and he was called in for an emergency operation.
So instead of admitting that he forgot about his duties for the night and going home to rest, Pieri headed out to the Wilkes-Barre Medical Center for Veteran Affairs to assist the emergency surgery. Unfortunately, for him, four to five beers cannot go unnoticed, especially when a nurse has to stand very close to the operating doctor.
The administration of the Medical Center was not pleased with the 58-year-old nurse’s behavior and, long story short, he is now facing a number of serious criminal charges like recklessly endangering a third party, public drunkenness, and driving under alcohol influence.
But the misfortune of the nurse accused of assisting operation while severely intoxicated does not end here. His case attracted the attention of Jeff Miller, a US Rep. and Robert McDonald, the US Veteran Affairs Department’s secretary.
Miller has requested McDonald to provide all of the documentation that is connected with Peri’s case, including surveillance footage, police reports, the status of the VA’s investigation and the disciplinary actions that were taken by the institution.
The case started to gain so much public attention because the nurse accused of assisting operation while severely intoxicated was still employed at the end of the month. The incident took place on the 4th of February.
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