Cops: Nurse Assisted Surgery While Drunk

A Pennsylvania nurse was charged with recklessly endangering another person, DUI, and public drunkenness after investigators say he assisted in an emergency appendectomy after he got drunk at a casino. Richard Pieri says he forgot he was on-call when he went out and drank approximately five beers. Officials say surveillance video recorded him stumbling in the Veterans Administration hospital parking lot, and court documents allege Pieri had difficulty logging into a basic computer system that night and failed to log the time of the operation correctly. He was reportedly in charge of preparing the patient and checking vital signs during surgery. Hospital officials have said the situation had no effect on the appendectomy patient.