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The board revoked the registered nurse license of Enrique Lopez of Washington Depot, finding that between September and December, while working at Life Spring Home Health Care of Waterbury, he took a drug used to treat panic attacks from patients, records show. He also failed to properly document medical records and falsified a drug record, state Department of Public Health records show.
From June to November, he also took an anti-anxiety drug from a patient and offered to pay the patient’s cable bill in return for the drug, records show. The board also found that Lopez made inappropriate comments or had inappropriate physical contact with a patient, records show.
The board also revoked the licensed practical nurse license of John Dube-Gallo of Middletown after finding that in 2016, he abused cocaine, methamphetamine and Adderall, a drug used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, records show.
The board suspended the LPN license of Joseph Iannicelli of Waterbury, saying he posed a “clear and immediate danger” to the public due to his drug use. Seven times between August 2016 and this April, he tested positive for cocaine, DPH records show.
In March, he acknowledged to a state investigator that he started using heroin two to three years ago, records show. He said he was in a methadone treatment plan, but had had several recent relapses on heroin, records show.
The board also placed the LPN license of Vivian Martinez of Bridgeport on probation for four years, with conditions that include random drug and alcohol testing.
A consent order she agreed to says that in May 2016, she was impaired or fell asleep while on duty caring for a medically fragile child in a home setting. The same month, she abused marijuana and alcohol to excess, the consent order said. While not admitting wrongdoing, Martinez did not contest the allegations.
The board placed the RN license of Lori Riley of Sharon on probation for two years. Records show that in 2015, while working for All About You Homecare in Torrington, she took Percocet meant for a patient and replaced it with Tylenol.
The nursing board also found that in 2014, Riley abused Percocet, Oxycodone and Vicodin and was hospitalized for a drug overdose, records show.
The board placed the RN license of Sarah Sanders from Middletown on probation for one year. State records show she has had a recent relapse in alcohol dependence. That and an emotional disorder may affect her ability to practice as a nurse, DPH records show.
The board placed the RN license of Laureen Collins of the Sandy Hook section of Newtown on probation for six months and is requiring her to take courses on emergency care. In 2014, while working at the Southbury Training School, she moved a patient who had fallen without assessing the patient, records show.
The board also suspended the RN license of Mark Scott of George Mills, New Hampshire for one year because he has a Connecticut nursing license and was disciplined in North Carolina last month. Officials there found that while working in 2016 in an emergency room in Winston-Salem, he had started a patient on fluids before receiving an order to do so from a doctor and failed to correct the patient’s medical report or alert, records show. Scott does not live in or practice nursing in Connecticut, records show.
Connecticut law allows the board to discipline nurses here if they have been disciplined in other states.
This story was reported under a partnership with the Connecticut Health I-Team (www.c-hit.org)