Patient Dies During ‘Love Affair’ with Nurse

A married nurse has been banned from the profession after a patient she was having sex with died after a secret liaison, and she ignored advice to call for an ambulance.

Penelope Williams, 42, a nurse at Wrexham’s Spire Yale Hospital, had been having a secret relationship with the man known as Patient A for a year.

Patient A received regular dialysis treatment at the hospital, a fitness to practise panel heard.

On the night of Patient A’s death, when the pair were having a secret liaison in the car park of the hospital, he suddenly groaned and blacked out.

Williams called another nurse – known as Colleague 1 – to resuscitate her lover, but did not call emergency services.

Colleague 1 told her to call an ambulance and went to the car park herself. Upon meeting Williams in the car park found Patient A partially clothed and unresponsive.

The presenting officer told the fitness to practice hearing: “She could see a man in the back of a car who was Patient A. Colleague 1 went to check Patient A who was unresponsive, so she called emergency services asking for the police and ambulance as Williams had not already called for an ambulance which Colleague 1 had suggested during their phone call.

“The emergency call handler advised Colleague 1 to perform CPR. When they took Patient A out of the car his trousers were down. Patient A subsequently died from heart failure and chronic kidney disease triggered by a medical episode.”

Williams initially told police and a paramedic in attendance that she had gone to the scene to meet Patient A after he messaged her on Facebook that he was unwell.

In a later statement to police, she admitted that the pair were in a sexual relationship and had previously arranged to meet at the car park that evening.

But she denied this in a formal meeting with the Health Board in February, explaining that “she met with Patient A and sat at the back of his car for about 30-45 minutes just talking”, before he started groaning and suddenly died.

At a local disciplinary hearing with the Health Board in May, Williams admitted to the relationship and not calling an ambulance even after being advised to.

She was sacked with “immediate effect”.

Williams was ultimately terminated from the Nursing and Midwifery Council for bringing the profession into disrepute, with the panel concluding: “Mrs. Williams’ actions were significant departures from the standards expected of a registered nurse, and are fundamentally incompatible with her remaining on the register.”

“The panel was of the view that the findings in this particular case demonstrate that Mrs. Williams’ actions were so serious that to allow her to continue practicing would undermine public confidence in the profession and in the NMC as a regulatory body.”

Original Article