Nurse Criminally Charged For Reporting Doctor

There's a grave injustice happening here in Texas. It all started when a nurse wrote a letter to the Texas Medical Board (TMB) claiming a doctor was putting his patients at risk with some unsafe practices. He was selling patient's a herbal line of his own instead of prescribing regular medications. He botched a skin graft in an emergency room where he did not have surgical rights. He also sutured a rubber tip to a patient's finger for "protection", and performed other unauthorized surgeries.

When the doctor, Rolando Arafiles Jr., was notified of the accusations by the Texas Medical Board (which investigates wrongdoing by doctors), he went to the county sheriff (a former patient and admirer of the doctor) and said he was being harrassed. The sheriff seized some computers from nurses, and found the letter to the TMB on the computer of nurse Anne Mitchell.

Mitchell, and another nurse who helped her write the letter were then fired. Now Mitchell faces a criminal charge of Misuse of Official Information. This is a third degree felony under Texas law. Her trial, which was moved from Kermit to Andrews because of volatile tensions in the town, is starting now.

This is a ridiculous charge. This nurse did not make any official information public. She did not talk to the media or spread rumors through the town. She did what she was supposed to do when patient safety is in doubt. She reported it to the TMB.

This is not the first time this doctor has been reported to the TMB either. A year before Nurse Mitchell wrote her letter, the TMB fined Dr Arafiles $1000 and ordered him to get "continuing medical education in the area of ethics, medical records and treatment of obesity."

Even the TMB is disturbed by the criminal charges. Their spokesman said, "Our mission at the Texas Medical Board is to protect patients through the regulation of doctors. That said, we are a complaint-driven agency and the only way we learn that something may be amiss with doctors is when it comes from co-workers, doctors, peers in the hospital, patients and patients' families. We take it very seriously, it's our job. It's sort of an alarming idea that somebody reporting a doctor of concern has to be afraid of criminal charges."

I would have thought the nurse would be protected by the Texas Occupations Code which says, ". . . a nurse may report a licensed health care practitioner, agency, or facility that the nurse has reasonable cause to believe has exposed a patient to substantial risk of harm as a result of failing to provide patient care."

The Texas Nursing Association says state nurses are protected. They said, "Nurses cannot be retaliated against for reporting concerns about another practitioner, staffing, and patient care/safety, or refusing to engage in reportable conduct." Obviously, this "protection" is not adequate. Bills giving nurses absolute "whistle-blower" protection are being introduced in the U.S. Congress and the next session of the Texas legislature. It looks to me like these bills are badly needed.

Frankly, if a doctor is screwing up and putting patients in danger, I want the nurses to have the absolute right to report that doctor. That's a whole lot better than a string of patient deaths.

Nurse Mitchell has filed a civil suit against the county, hospital, sheriff, doctor and prosecutor. She's accusing them of vindictive prosecution and denying her First Amendment rights. I hope she takes them all to the cleaners.

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UPDATE -- Great news! After deliberating for only an hour, a six-man and six-woman jury found Nurse Anne Mitchell innocent of the ridiculous charge lodged against her for reporting the unsafe practices of a doctor to the Texas Medical Board. Each of the jurors hugged her after the trial.

This is not just a victory for Nurse Mitchell, but also for patients across Texas and America. We all owe this jury a big thank you (and a hug).