Brit nurse suspended for having affair with heart, lung transplant patient

London (ANI) - A British nurse has been suspended after she was found having an affair with a heart and lung transplant patient.

Rebecca Bayliss, 29, met the man on her ward when he was receiving treatment for cystic fibrosis while on the donor waiting list.

After he was discharged they began a three-month sexual relationship, which continued despite him returning to hospital for the life-saving operation.

The nurse, who had a boyfriend at the time, joked to colleagues that she would have to turn up his oxygen and give him nebulisers - medication inhaled in mist form - before her trysts with him.

Shocked managers at Birmingham Heartlands Hospital referred Bayliss to the Nursing and Midwifery Council after the patient confided in a clinical psychologist.

An NMC hearing in London found Bayliss, who did not attend, guilty of having a sexual relationship with the man and suspended her for 12 months.

The nurse, who had worked for Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust since 2006, even boasted about the affair on her page on the Facebook website, saying she was 'excited'.

Bayliss, from Walsall, West Midlands, was reprimanded by senior hospital staff and banned from contacting Patient A.

But she continued to pester him to restart their relationship. He later told investigators that the affair had affected his health.

"I could have done without the stress. It certainly didn't help my recovery," the Daily Mail quoted him as saying.

The NMC panel found Bayliss guilty of entering into a sexual relationship with a patient between February 2008 and May 2008.

She was also found guilty of failing to inform her manager of the relationship and failing to maintain professional boundaries with the patient.

"Rebecca Bayliss engaged in a wholly unprofessional and unacceptable relationship," NMC panel member Salim Hefejee, said.

"Patient A was vulnerable and suffering from a significant illness. The turmoil of the relationship had an adverse affect on him, causing stress and upset.

"Although the relationship was consensual, the patient was particularly vulnerable by reason of his serious medical condition and his relative social isolation.

"This action was serious and amounts to conduct unworthy of a nurse," Hefejee added.