A Kendall Regional nurse drank an ‘excessive amount of alcohol’ before work, state says
A registered nurse who said she “consumed an excessive amount of alcohol” before her shift at Kendall Regional Hospital and ended it by getting taken into custody has had her license suspended by the state.
That’s in the Florida Department of Health administrative complaint about Karla Fuente that led to Monday’s Board of Nursing’s final order suspending the license Fuente has held since December 2012. Online records show no previous discipline issues on Fuente’s license.
According to the complaint, Fuente was working in the Intensive Care Unit on Oct. 23, 2019 when co-workers noticed she “was having difficulty answering questions, appeared disoriented, had issues with short-term memory and had difficulty following simple instructions.”
When the nursing supervisor told Fuente to go prepare for a “reasonable suspicion drug test,” Fuente instead asked for the ICU manager. She told the supervisor and the ICU manager that she “was being seen by a psychiatrist and was suicidal.”
The complaint says the supervisor walked Fuente to the emergency room, where Fuente was “involuntarily admitted to the hospital for psychiatric evaluation pursuant to the Baker Act.”
The Department of Health ordered Fuente to undergo an evaluation, which included toxicology testing. On Oct. 27, 2020, the complaint says Fuente told addiction and psychiatry specialist Dr. I. Jack Abramson that she “consumed an excessive amount of alcohol” before that 7 p.m. shift a year earlier.
Fuente didn’t undergo the testing. Abramson diagnosed her with “severe alcohol use disorder and major depressive disorder, recurrent with possible bipolar disorder” and not able to practice nursing without being a danger to patients.
Fuente was fined administrative costs of $3,210 and her license suspended until she is evaluated by the Intervention Project for Nurses, which monitors impaired nurses, and goes along with an IPN program for health.
If you or someone you know is thinking about doing damage to yourself, call the toll-free, always-answered National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-TALK (8255).
This story was originally published April 29, 2021 at 10:00 AM.
