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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
NERSESYANNELLI
6 months ago
128 comments
BY THE WHICH PART OF HIS BODY WAS THAT GUY THINKING?
jilmaki1
6 months ago
20 comments
If he would take advantage of a deceased patient like this.....what on earth has he done to take advantage of patients that are still alive!
bookishfilly
7 months ago
58 comments
What has happened to ethics in nursing?
Kristinaveale
7 months ago
56 comments
It is these kind of people who are giving nurses a bad rep. It just makes me realize that just because your are "smart" according to the Board standard, you may not be smart at all. Really, who does this. What an IDIOT!
Seckenrode
7 months ago
14 comments
i have one word for this guy... MORON!!!
FLNURSE00
7 months ago
8 comments
Just think its book smart people like him that pass boards and get to be a nurse, but dont have a lick of common sense in his head to think about perhaps changing out of his scrubs before using his dead patients CC at a BEST BUY that we all know have cameras covering your every move....It's morons like him that make it look like we have so many "MEDICATION ERRORS", makes me wonder how many medication errors are really "MORON ERRORS"
mcsrubio
7 months ago
8 comments
Awwwsss...very bad move! He must've forgotten there are A LOT OF CAMERAS around!!! ** sneaky boy **
surfmom23
7 months ago
84 comments
And you know the people that rip off the feds go away for life. At least we know who really counts!
crys5881
7 months ago
32 comments
I cant believe it was only 30 days.....you would think it deserved more!
ProudNavyWife
7 months ago
4160 comments
Wow...a month in jail...that is truely sad. People never cease to amaze me...well, I believe in Karma, what goes around come around.
badcotoyou
7 months ago
2 comments
Sadd it is stupid why would you give up a $50,000 dollar career for a $1800 laptop
juliern734
7 months ago
6658 comments
How very sad .
lipgloss
7 months ago
6 comments
this is sad
terrah
7 months ago
14288 comments
How sad to think that he must not think high enough of himself or his career that he'd go and disgrace himself and his profession. Some people just love to make it hard on the rest of us. And as for the time he served....no way, that just seems so wrong. He had to get more then that!!!
mgraves
7 months ago
8 comments
I can't believe he did something like this. I mean nurses make really good money. I wonder if he has a substance abuse problem on top of this. How could he not get caught wearing hospital scrubs LOL -he needs to have a heart attack.