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Nurse Who Stole Dead Man's Credit Card Gets 30 Days
Duane Bourne / The Virginian-Pilot
September 18, 2008
Matthew Wiseman, a registered nurse who pilfered a dead patient’s credit card, was ordered to serve a month in jail on Wednesday.
The 24-year-old man, who pleaded guilty to credit card theft and credit card fraud, used the card of Michael Puopolo in March to buy a laptop computer hours after the 75-year-old man was pronounced dead at Sentara Bayside Hospital. On Wednesday, Circuit Judge A. Joseph Canada Jr. found Wiseman guilty of the two felonies and sentenced him to eight years in prison with all but 30 days suspended.
Wiseman was working in the emergency room when Puopolo was transported to the hospital. Puopolo was found slumped over in his car in the parking lot of a BJ’s Wholesale Club store, and was later pronounced dead of a heart attack.
Six hours after Puopolo died, Wiseman was captured on surveillance footage at a Best Buy store wearing his hospital scrubs and using the stolen Visa card to buy a $1,800 laptop computer, according to prosecutors.
Hospital workers identified him from the video and he was fired for violating Sentara’s ethics policy.
© YellowBrix 2008
1BasketballPAstudent
about 1 year ago
40 comments
I have been fighting for years to get my First Assistant an these are the Nurses that I hear about
that get their Nursing Degree easy an get it paid for. WHY????? How do these people get their
license to take care of my family. This person should be thrown in the ocean to never hurt get the
chance to hurt again. You have to earn the title Nurse.
nanette
about 1 year ago
224 comments
There are people like this all over the place-they just need to stay out of nursing. If he was caught at this what else has he gotten away with that nobody knows about???.....kinda makes you wonder, huh?
kstiltner1
about 1 year ago
7266 comments
That is terrible. He should also have his nursing license taken away so he cannot do this again. He may also be doing other things.
diane316
about 1 year ago
1042 comments
Makes you wonder what else he's done that he never got caught doing?
curlyd
about 1 year ago
82 comments
Despicable...unbelievable. What in the world was his thinking?
ksaranuku
about 1 year ago
14 comments
as nurses we shuold be faithful to what we do or face in our daily dutiesand be thankful and be content in what we have.Please do ask our 'LORD AND MASTER' to lead and guide us through daily when we face the dark time /moments of our life.
runningbear56
about 1 year ago
4 comments
I had to read this twice to make sure it wasn't a misprint! 30 days for stealing a dead patient credit card to buy yourself a laptop! What was he thinking?! As nurses weather we're on staff or do travel nursing our salaries are more than enough to buy not one, but two laptops if needed! Now he wasted time, money, effort, energy to become a nurse to have it flushed down the toilet because of his lack of judgment/consideration! He deserves more than 30 days!! He should not be allowed to practice as a nurse anywhere!!!!!!!
rtalapa
about 1 year ago
24 comments
i agree 30days is way too less . it's like he pretty much got away with the charges, its just a slap on the wrist. he probably can afford the laptop, no conscience at all, a dead patient, where does our moral lies. he gave all nurses a bad name.
MZLESHA
about 1 year ago
4 comments
I CANNOT BELIEVE HE ONLY GOT 30 DAYS. HE SHOULD'VE HAD TO SERVE ALL EIGHT YEARS. THIS IS INHUMANE AN HE OUGHT TO BE ASHAMED OF HIMSELF, NOT ONLY FROM STEALING FROM AN ELDERLY PERSON, BUT FROM A DEAD ELDERY PERSON AND HE PUT HIS WHOLE NURSING CAREER ON THE LINE FOR A STUPID $1,800 LAPTOP. WAS IT REALLY WORTH IT.
basiajune
about 1 year ago
104 comments
THIS KIND OF STUFF MAKES OTHER NURSES LOOK BAD THAT ACTUALLY WORK HARD AND CARE FOR THEIR PATIENTS! I DONT KNOW WHY HE BECAME A NURSE!
basiajune
about 1 year ago
104 comments
THIS IS DISGUSTING! HOW CAN SOMEONE DO THIS AND ESPECIALLY A NURSE THAT IS SUPPOSED TO CARE FOR THE SICK! NURSES GET PAID GOOD! HE COULDNT OF SAVED HIS OWN MONEY TO PURCHASE A LAP TOP! AND HOPEFULLY HE WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO WORK FOR ANOTHER HEALTH CARE. HE WILL HAVE 2 FELONIES ON HIS RECORD, AND THEY CHECK THAT!!!
cmad700
about 1 year ago
2 comments
That is so awful. I'm doing my Nursing Pre-reqs now what's the matter people don't fear God or the Law
TEESNRN
about 1 year ago
180 comments
i was doing my clinical rotation there that day. i could not believe that nurse did that. he deserved more than eight years
foreverlove2133
about 1 year ago
4 comments
why he studied nursing,you never know if he was steeling from other patients.Revoked his license for ever. We DON'T NEEDS NURSES LIKE THAT. Is 2 felony cases deserves more than 8 yrs in prison.He never learned anything from Florence Nightingale.
91CUSARMYNURSE
about 1 year ago
2 comments
How crude and disgusting! As nurses we are always in the public eye and are expected to be honest. How sad that this event has happened...especially when the patient had just passed away. 30 days is not enough to justify what this nurse has done. I hope this nurse nevers gets the opportunity to ever practice nursing on any future patients....dead or alive!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!