Authorities in Florida, USA, have arrested a 29-year-old woman accused of posing as a registered nurse and treating thousands of unsuspecting patients without proper credentials.
According to the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office, Autumn Bardisa treated 4,486 patients between July 2023 and January 2024 at a local hospital using someone else’s nursing license number.
Sheriff Rick Staly described the case as “one of the most disturbing cases of medical fraud we’ve ever investigated.”
Bardisa was initially hired as an advanced nurse technician under the supervision of a licensed nurse.
At the time, she claimed to be an “education first” registered nurse, a term indicating she had completed the academic requirements but had not passed the national licensing exam.
Investigators said she later told the hospital that she had passed the exam and submitted a license number belonging to another nurse with the same first name but a different last name.
Bardisa reportedly claimed the discrepancy was due to a recent marriage but failed to produce a marriage certificate despite repeated requests.
The deception unraveled in January when a co-worker checked her credentials after she was offered a promotion.
It was then discovered that her only legitimate qualification was an expired certified nursing assistant license.
Hospital administrators terminated her employment on January 22 and alerted the sheriff’s office, sparking an investigation.
Authorities later discovered the nurse whose license was stolen worked at another hospital and had attended nursing school at the same time as Bardisa.
However, the two were not personally acquainted.
Bardisa now faces seven counts of practicing a health care profession without a license and seven counts of fraudulent use of personal identification.
She is being held at the Sheriff Perry Hall Inmate Detention Facility on a $70,000 bond.
This case comes amid a string of similar impersonation incidents across the United States, including recent arrests in Pennsylvania and California.