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 PLAINS TOWNSHIP -- A nurse is charged with being drunk while assisting on an emergency surgery at the VA Medical Center near Wilkes-Barre. Richard J. Pieri, 59, of 132 Edge Rock Drive, Drums, is charged with reckless endangerment, driving under the influence and public drunkenness. Pieri was responsible for prepping and retrieving the patient, preparing surgical materials inside the operating room, documenting the procedure and monitoring the subject’s vital signs, according to the affidavit. He admits he was at a casino drinking when he was called into work. Police say there's video of him stumbling through the parking lot before he headed inside and helped with an emergency appendectomy. He allegedly grew agitated after having difficulty logging onto a VA-issued computer and entered incorrect time stamps into the computer that documented the time the operation began and concluded. Asked during an interview with police why they would want to question him, Pieri allegedly said, “I guess it has something to do with me being drunk on call.” 
 
 Pieri later told police he consumed approximately four or five beers while playing slots at Mohegan Sun Pocono casino and had forgotten he was on call when his pager went off advising him of the surgery.
– Shortly before midnight on Feb. 4, Richard Pieri was called to the VA Medical Center near Wilkes-Barre, Pa., to assist with an emergency appendectomy. The problem: The 59-year-old nurse had forgotten he was on call and spent the night drinking four or five beers at a local casino, WNEP reports via court documents. Even so, Pieri drove to the hospital, where a camera showed him walking into a concrete barrier and nearly falling in a parking lot, police allege, per the Wilkes-Barre Times-Leader. He then prepared the patient and operating room, documented the surgery, and monitored the patient's vital signs. A co-worker reported Pieri after noticing he was "definitely not himself," had difficulty using a computer system, and failed to correctly record the time of the operation. A complaint notes the patient was readmitted to the hospital with stomach pains after the surgery, but the VA believes Pieri’s conduct had no effect on the patient. "As soon as we were notified of the event, we made sure there were no unsafe situations for our patients and then we did the further investigations," a hospital rep says. Pieri now faces charges of reckless endangerment, DUI, and public drunkenness. He has been removed from direct patient care. When police asked Pieri why they might want to question him, he responded thusly: "I guess it has something to do with me being drunk on call."