A British nurse was fired after the hospital discovered she had a year-long affair with a patient, which ended when the man died after a sexual encounter with her in the hospital’s parking lot in Wrexham, Wales.
Patient A was receiving dialysis treatment when he died of a heart attack during a late-night meeting in January of last year. After the patient collapsed in the back of his car, Penelope Williams, 42, failed to call an ambulance.
Patient A died of “heart failure and chronic kidney disease triggered by a medical episode,” according to The Times UK.
The incident prompted an investigation and a hearing before a Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) fitness-to-practice panel, which heard testimony that Williams had ignored advice from colleagues to call an ambulance.
Patient A met Williams at work, and Williams assisted him in receiving treatment for his condition. When the ambulance arrived, they discovered Patient A partially naked and unresponsive.
Williams initially told police and a paramedic that she went to see him after he messaged her on Facebook that he was feeling ill. She claimed she only spent “30 to 45 minutes” in the back of his car “just talking,” according to The Telegraph.
Williams had called a colleague instead of emergency personnel, and the colleague urged her to immediately call an ambulance, only for Williams to delay in doing so. She was “crying and distressed and asking for help as she tried to explain that someone had died.”
The colleague ended up calling an ambulance instead, who found Patient A dead upon their arrival.
She later admitted to the ongoing relationship and that she had met up with him that night for a sexual encounter. Her admission at a later hearing in May resulted in her final dismissal from her job.
