An allegedly drunk nurse who stumbled into an operating room at a Pennsylvania VA hospital in early February is now facing a slew of charges.
According to a probable-cause affidavit, Richard J. Pieri, a 59-year-old registered nurse, told authorities he thought he knew why they arrived to confront him.
"I guess it has something to do with me being drunk on call," he said,
according to The Washington Post.
Now, after participating in an emergency appendectomy that night, Feb. 4, Pieri is charged with recklessly endangering another person, driving under the influence, and
public drunkenness, The Associated Press reported.
Court documents state that security camera footage shows an "unsteady" Pieri stumbling though the parking lot as he entered the Wilkes-Barre VA Medical Center.
A Department of Veterans Affairs police detective wrote that Pieri's behavior was "consistent with someone who is under the influence of a controlled substance or alcoholic beverages."
"Rick, are you drunk or something?" asked another nurse after Pieri allegedly grew upset after he had trouble logging into his computer. She said he was "definitely not himself."
Pieri told investigators that he drank four or five beers while playing slots at the Mohegan Sun Pocono casino beginning at 5 p.m., then went home to lie down.
He was paged for surgery around 10:30 p.m., according to the AP.
William Klaips, executive assistant to the VA Medical Center’s director, told The Post that everything was fine in the end.
"To the best of my knowledge there’s been no harm as a result of the incident," he said.
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