Ex-nurse accused of identity theft

A former Santa Rosa Medical Center nurse has been arrested on identity theft charges, accused of assuming the identity of a patient and making more than $62,000 in purchases in his name.

Gary Lamar Holt, 36, of the 5100 block of Victoria Drive in Milton, was booked into Santa Rosa County Jail on $60,000 bond after his arrest last week in Tennessee. He is charged with fraud and impersonation by using the identity of another.

Holt, an operating room nurse for about six months, left employment "abruptly" in February, said Pete Gandy, chief executive officer of the Milton hospital.

Gandy stressed that a comprehensive background check was made before Holt, previously employed as a nurse in Tennessee, was given a job here "and everything came back clear."

He is licensed by the State of Florida.

Holt came to the Santa Rosa Medical Center emergency room for treatment himself last November and apparently discovered at that time that another patient with a similar name coincidentally was at the hospital, Gandy said.

Having clearance to use hospital computers, Holt later accessed enough information about the patient -- a violation of medical center regulations -- to begin making purchases by using the patient's identity, officials said.

Among his purchases were a 2004 pickup at Allen Turner Automotive and a 2007 Honda Civic bought at Pensacola Honda, police reports show. He also opened a fraudulent credit card account, investigators said.

Gandy said hospital officials first became aware of the situation after they were notified by Milton Police Department investigators and have been cooperating closely with the department. Gandy said he has been in contact with the former patient and is confident after checking the hospital's computer system that there are no other identity theft victims.

Aussie army nurse delivers tsunami baby

Australian Defence Force nursing officer Patrick Bates is getting a ribbing from his mates about names for newborn infants, after delivering his first baby at a tsunami-hit village in the Solomon Islands.

The 31-year-old army lieutenant was part of a medical team dropped by helicopter at the village of Maravari on Vella Lavella Island on Friday when his skills were called on to assist a 21-year-old woman in protracted labour.

Only four weeks ago the reservist officer from the 2nd Health Support Battalion in Brisbane completed a NSW Nurses Association emergency obstetrics course, taking time off from his job as an intensive care nurse at Royal Brisbane Hospital.

He arrived at Maravari to be rushed by the local health worker to a hut where Racheal (Racheal) Haqi-Ilo had been in labour for 24 hours.

Only 10 days beforehand the north-west Solomons was shaken by an 8.1 magnitude earthquake then swept by a tsunami, leaving upwards of 40 people dead and thousands of people homeless.

In Maravari, Bates set to work to assess the woman then radioed his unit at the island town of Gizo to seek instructions on a possible medical evacuation.

"We were waiting for a reply when a runner came up and said, 'Mister, mister, she's about to have a baby'," Bates said.

He and army medic Lynda Bateson rushed to the woman and Bates began preparing for the delivery with the help of the local health worker, who had little experience of childbirth.

"I was pretty confident, I did recall a lot of the material from the obstetrics course, everything did look right," Bates said.

Bates checked his procedures by radio with unit doctor Lieutenant-Colonel Lindsay McDowell in Gizo during the two and a half hour delivery.

The umbilical cord was wrapped around the baby's neck but he managed to free it.

Bates said the delivery went well for the first-time mother and the baby and he was thanked profusely by the family and gathered villagers.

"Everyone was smiling as soon as we opened the door, they were giggling to each other and very happy," Bates said.

"With the earthquake and tsunami, they had had some bad luck.

"Bearing in mind it was Friday the 13th, it was pretty lucky. I certainly wouldn't have minded a bit more experience, but that's the way the military works.

"For some reason I actually packed a cigar that day. I never got to crack it but I might do that when I get home."

Bates said he had a long way to go to match his father, who is an obstetrician in Perth and has delivered thousands of babies.

The medical unit's commander, Major Jocelyn King, said Bates was on hand at a good time.

"We are all ribbing him about what they are going to call the child."

But Bates said he was not sure he liked the idea of a little Solomon Islands girl being called Paddy.

The 15-member army medical team in the Solomons is assisting the country's Health Department to get island health clinics back up and running, is helping ensure good sanitation and clean water in displacement camps and is assessing village health needs.

Mid-South nurse charged with ID theft

A Mid-South man working as a nurse in a Memphis hospital appeared in court to face identity theft charges today.

A nurse working at St.Francis in East Memphis is accused of stealing patient information while working in a hospital in Florida.

Gary Lamar Holt was arraigned this morning at 201 Poplar.


Holt was arrested in Memphis as a fugitive. He asked for bond this morning, but the judge denied it.


Detective Nancy Ravey in Milton, Florida tells us Holt accessed medical information on patients and obtained social security numbers while working there.

With that information, Ravey says Holt bought two vehicles and got a credit card.

He's charged with a 1st-degree felony.

Two months ago, Ravey says he fled Milton and came to work at St.Francis in East Memphis as a nurse.

A spokesperson for St. Francis says, "we have been informed that a contract nurse, employed by Nursing Innovations, a nurse staffing agency, was arrested."

"The agency is responsible for conducting background checks on these individuals prior to placing them in a hospital."

"St. Francis Hospital will cooperate with any investigation if our assistance is needed."

We contacted Nursing Innovations (based in Florida) and Chief Operating Officer James Houston says he didn't want to comment during an on-going criminal investigation.

Also, We're told Memphis police are looking into the question of whether Holt stole any personal information at St. Francis while he was here.


He will extradited to Florida in the next 30 days.

Suspended nurse blames shift patterns

A nurse has blamed her shift patterns at a Norfolk hospital for causing her to make mistakes, including giving a blood pouch to the wrong person.

Yesterday, Sally Forster, 36, was suspended for a year by the Nursing and Midwifery Council. She had already been dismissed from the James Paget Hospital in Gorleston in December 2004.

The Halesworth woman was charged with failing to reach the required standards of a registered nurse between April and September 2004 and a lack of competence which meant her fitness to practice was impaired.

In letters to the panel, she said: “I admit to not meeting the standards required, but as also stated the work/life balance was inappropriate and despite numerous requests that the shifts I received were not acceptable, these were not taken seriously enough.

“I felt nervous about being constantly watched as if I was being forced into a mistake.

“I believe my shift turnaround left me so run down, physically tired and fatigued that it contributed to my errors. I felt depressed and couldn't nurse the way I felt was appropriate.”

But the panel found that she was supported by the hospital.

Panel chairman Kathleen McLean said: “We have heard evidence from many witnesses and despite some improvement it was neither consistent nor sustainable.

“We are satisfied she got intensive support and supervision, but she posed a clear risk to patient safety due to a lack of competence, and in the interests of public safety and protection we felt it appropriate for a suspension order.”

Forster made the errors while she was working on two orthopaedic wards. She was already being monitored by the ward sister when she gave a blood pouch to the wrong person in April 2004.

A few weeks later, she was spotted connecting a glucose drip to a patient who was not diabetic.

Although neither patient was harmed, she could not explain why she was making the mistakes. She was signed off sick with a stress-related illness and depression.

She was placed on a performance review, but despite repeated attempts from her line managers she made a string of errors, including failing to check patient identities and not telling a senior member of staff when a patient developed MRSA. After a further mistake with a drip in September 2004, she was dismissed.

Prosecutors argue nurse helped Golfview robber because of child

Attorneys Tuesday revealed that the Rochester, Minn., nurse charged with aiding the alleged robber of the Golfview Liquor store is the mother of his child.

Susan Leathes, 36, made her first appearance in Winona County District Court Tuesday, where she heard charges that she treated Andre Dion Jones for a bullet wound after he was shot during a botched robbery.

She then lied about it to police, according to the charges.

Leathes, a Mayo Clinic nurse, is raising a 12-year-old daughter that she had with Jones. Winona County Attorney Chuck MacLean argued that the connection gave Leathes motivation to protect Jones.

Leathes’ private attorney, Gary Gittus, painted a different picture during the brief hearing.

“She’s been manipulated and lied to,” Gittus said. “She had no knowledge (of the robbery) until after the fact … she acted out of concern for her daughter.”

Leathes faces four counts of aiding an offender. She was released without bail, provided she returns for future court appearances.

Jones, 37, has been charged with six felony counts of robbery and is being held in the Winona County Jail. Prosecutors say that Jones tried to rob the Golfview Liquor store on Feb. 9 and was shot by the owner.

A 37-year-old Rochester, Minn. man also faces charges that he drove Jones to and from the store.

Nurse gives up license in drug case

A 37-year-old Fairfield woman has surrendered her nursing license and admitted guilt in the burglary of a local hospital and attempted theft of a painkiller from a terminally ill patient at a hospice center.

Annie Truman pleaded guilty to three counts of burglary and a count of attempted theft Monday before Butler County Common Pleas Judge Patricia Oney.

The judge warned Truman that she faces four years in prison if she fails to follow regulations imposed on her by the county’s Substance Abuse and Mental Illness court.

Assistant Prosecutor David Kash said Truman’s offenses occurred Nov. 11-12 at Mercy Hospital Fairfield and a hospice care facility on Northwest Washington Boulevard in Hamilton.

Kash said Truman was caught rummaging through disposed needles and sharp instruments at Mercy one day. The next day, she was caught dismantling a patient’s intravenous drip medication, apparently seeking the drug for her own use, Kash said.

As part of a plea deal with the prosecutor’s office, Truman voluntarily and permanently surrendered her registered nurse’s license and can never again reapply to become a nurse, officials said.

Nurse Charged In Deadly Fire

Texas - A 33-year-old licensed vocational nurse has been charged with three counts of murder and one count of first-degree arson in connection with the March 28 fire in a North Loop office building that killed three people and injured six others.
Misty Ann Weaver, an employee of cosmetic surgeon Dr. Robert Capriotti, "has confessed" to starting the four-alarm fire at 9343 North Loop East, according to officials with the Houston Fire Department and U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
HFD Chief Arson Investigator Roy Paul said Weaver wanted to cover up the fact that she had failed to complete paperwork for an important audit for Capriotti. The audit had to do with the doctor's state accreditation or recertification, Paul said.
The office was on the fifth floor of the six-story, atrium-style building.
Weaver was interviewed by HFD and ATF agents at the fire department's arson division Saturday afternoon, when they say she confessed.
Senior Arson Investigator James Snowden said that Weaver "did admit that she was remorseful for the injuries and the fatalities."
Weaver was in charge of the audit, which was due March 29, "and for one reason or another, she failed to get that audit together in a timely manner, and she was fearful of being discharged by the doctor," Snowden said.
"She thought by starting a small fire it would postpone the audit," Snowden said.
Killed in the fire were Jeanette Hargrove, Shanna Ellis and Marvin Wells Sr. Hargrove and Ellis worked for the Texas Department of Assistive and Rehabilitative Services on the fifth floor, and Wells was the boss of a trucking company on the sixth floor.
Hargrove's funeral was held Saturday afternoon.
Weaver, who had been interviewed earlier by ATF agents, was asked to return to the arson office Saturday afternoon to clear up "discrepancies" in earlier accounts of her activities on the day of the fire.
"When she was confronted with those discrepanices, she made an admission," said Rob Elder, the ATF agent who headed the multistate team of investigators who assisted the fire department.
Elder said that as ATF agents looked at the fire scene, the investigation started to shift to the doctor's office on the fifth floor.
"The doctor, we interviewed him and he answered our questions, and he was helpful," Elder said.
Paul said he does not think Weaver intended to injure or kill others.
"I think she was concerned that she would lose her job," Paul said. "She never dreamed that something like this was going to happen. There were no winners here. The whole situation is tragic."
In an interview with the Houston Chronicle on the day after the fire, the doctor, Capriotti, said that he and his staff had left work about five minutes before the fire.
"Everything is destroyed. My office is completely gone. Even all the medical records were destroyed," Capriotti said. "I don't know what I'll do. I really have not had time to think about it."
Capriotti said there were oxygen tanks in his office. "But they had been there for years. If the tanks did explode, it was probably the result of the fire that had already started," Capriotti said.
He could not be reached for comment Saturday evening.
The rush-hour blaze was whipped up by high winds and, possibly, fed by some of the oxygen tanks in the doctor's office, fire officials said. Several cylinders of oxygen in the doctor's office were intact, but others were not, Paul said.
Franceska Perot, an ATF special agent and public information officer for the bureau, said, "The oxygen possibly gave fuel to the fire."
The fire so badly damaged the upper floors that recovery efforts during the fire were suspended due to concerns about the building's safety.
The three victims were portrayed by family and friends as people who lived their lives helping others.
Hargrove, 52, was a vocational rehabilitation counselor.
She is survived by her husband of 14 years, Willie Hargrove, and a 16-year old stepdaughter.
Ellis, 38, also was a vocational rehabilitation counselor at the state agency.
She was a divorced single mother of a 16-year-old boy and an 8-year-old girl.
Wells, 46, was the father of a 20-year-old daughter, an 18-year-old son and an 11-year-old son.