A nurse who took nude pictures of an unconscious patient has had her medical licence revoked.
Working at Upstate University Hospital in Syracuse, New York, the 27-year-old woman, Kristen Johnson took multiple images of a patient’s penis on her smartphone and sent it onto fellow staff. The images were also found on her laptop.
Unsurprisingly, those who received message complained to senior staff at the hospital, which then triggered a nine month investigation into Johnson’s conduct carried out by University Police and the Onondaga County District Attorney, William Fitzpatrick.
At the time of Johnson’s arrest Fitzpatrick said, “Despite what certain people seem to think, it is a crime in the state of New York to view, broadcast or record images of another person’s intimate body parts, surreptitiously.”
During that time it was found that in addition to the images, Johnson had also used her phone to take video footage of another nurse cleaning an incapacitated female patient’s gastrointestinal blood clot.
Court papers say that Johnson pointed her phone at the nurse performing the clean, and that the patient’s rectum was visible in the film.
The nurse also told the court that Johnson then sent the video to her phone, however it is not known if it was also circulated to other members of staff.
Johnson was arrested in May of last year and charged with two counts of felony second-degree unlawful surveillance and one count of misdemeanour second-degree disseminating unlawful surveillance.
Following the arrest of Johnson, an Upstate University Hospital spokesman, Darryl Geddes said that Johnson was no longer working from the hospital.
In November, she plead guilty to the misdemeanour and entered a plea deal that reduced the two felony charges against her, but required that she give up her license to practice as a registered nurse.
Johnson did not contest the charge that claimed she practiced nursing with moral unfitness.
While the patients and their families were notified following the investigation, it is not yet known if they were brought before the court to give evidence.
*Lead image via Onondaga County Sheriff’s Office.
Top Comments
Good lord, what would possess you to do something like that? You don't become a nurse overnight, it takes a huge amount of study and work, why would you do something so idiotic and throw your entire career away? Not to mention the fact that you're treating vulnerable human beings with such utter disrespect. People get anxious enough going to the doctor. I'm sure I'm not the only one who worries about being secretly judged about my body, but I always figure, 'they're a professional, they've seen it before'. Stories like this and another similar one recently do not fill me with confidence.
Hello Rush. As a health professional i can assure you that we HAVE seen it all before, so please don't be anxious about being judged. This case is so abnormal! Something must have gone seriously wrong on that nurse's mind.