Nurse Faces Trial for Reporting Physician’s Bad Practice

Nurse Anne Mitchell should have signed her letter to the Medical Board reporting inappropriate medical practices of one  Dr. Rolando G. Arafiles Jr, since it appears to have fallen under the purview of her specialized job functions.

Other than that, it appears that she and her colleague Vickilyn Galle did the right thing in reporting some rather odd medical practices of Dr. Arafiles.

The sheriff of the town appears to be satisfying personal obligations to the physician  in filing this criminal case, as he credits Arafiles with saving his life after a heart attack.

Charges against Galle have been dropped, however Mitchell’s trial is set for this week on charges of misusing official information for non governmental purposes, a 3rd degree felony in her state of Texas.

Mitchell and Galle were fired without explanation from Winkler County Memorial Hospital, where ironically they served most recently as compliance and quality improvement officers.   One might conclude that they were directly dismissed for doing their jobs, something with which Pharmer has prior  experience.

Nurse and professional associatations are outraged, and have amassed a $40,ooo dollar legal fund for the nurses.   A civil countersuit against the sheriff, prosecutor, hospital, and physician has been filed by Mitchells lawyers.

Read more  at NYT …. and there will be an effort to link further info as this case proceeds.

Texas Nurses Association is following this story as it unfolds.

The final result: aquittal

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