Deep Dive
Shownotes Transcript
Hey everybody, this is Tina again with Good Nurse, Bad Nurse. Welcome back to another episode of this podcast where we take stories from the news about healthcare professionals and we talk about the good and the bad things that can happen. I want to introduce my co-host for this week. It's my husband, Mark. He's been on many times before. Welcome back, Mark. Thank you. Thanks for finally taking me up on my request to be on. Thank you.
Right. I feel like it's always a good perspective to have your spouse. They have sort of a different window into the world of healthcare. I know that Mark knows a lot about healthcare because of my involvement in healthcare, even though his world of IT and computers is just so incredibly different than what I do. Wouldn't you say that you feel like you have a little bit, you have a different window. I've been with you since school. Right. Yeah. I've,
I know all the inside stories of the hospital. Yeah. No names ever mentioned, of course. Right. No HIPAA violations.
So I always enjoy having him on because it just gives a sort of, it's a non-medical, but at the same time, he has a lot of insight because he really listens to what I have to say regarding my job and regarding nursing and healthcare. And so he knows a lot. He has a different sort of perspective. So excited about getting to talk about these stories. Before we get into the bad nurse story for this week, I want to thank a
company who they're not, it's not a paid sponsor or anything, but
The company Allegria shoes, they, I have been, I've worn their shoes for years. I have these cute little slip-on shoes with little dolls on them. And I've bought multiple pairs of them. They're so comfortable, so easy. I love just slipping them on. And so they reached out to me and just said, hey, we have a new line of shoes for the fall that are kind of trendy and cute while still offering that same arch support that they do, which I have to have.
And so they offered to send me a new pair of their shoes. And so I was like, sure, that sounds great. I tried them and I absolutely love them. So I just wanted to give them a shout out because they're
for somebody that suffers so much with foot pain, plantar fasciitis, I cannot emphasize how important it is to me to be able to wear a shoe that looks kind of cute and trendy because it is for me, first and foremost, it's about the comfort of it and the feel and the support of my arches. And then it's about the style and it's not easy finding shoes that are cute. So if you guys are
I'm sure there's many of you in healthcare that struggle with having issues with plantar fasciitis and foot pain. And if you struggle with that and you are needing a shoe with really good arch support that's comfortable and actually kind of trendy, little boots and just cute little Mary Janes, go to their website, give them a look and see what you think. For this week's
This is a story that has been, it happened in 2022. And as with most of these stories, as soon as something like this happens, I immediately start getting texts and emails, messages on social media from people that are like, oh, look at this, here's a story. And I typically like to wait a little bit to see what unfolds from it.
But I've seen a lot of different social media influencers talking about this story. And I've seen a lot of news articles about it. And then finally, I just thought, I think it's still not quite resolved. But I feel like it's time to go ahead and talk about this really, really tragic story. So this is the story of Nicole Linton.
So just to give you a little background, she's 37 years old, or at least at the time, she was a 37-year-old travel nurse from Houston, Texas. And she had a history of working in intensive care units all across different states. She had a documented, according, and all of this is alleged, from different multiple news outlets and articles. According to these news articles, she has a history of
severe bipolar disorder, and prior mental health crises. So in August of 2022, at approximately 1.40 p.m., she drove her Mercedes-Benz at speeds of nearly 90 miles per hour through a red light at the intersection of La Brea and Slauson Avenue in Windsor Hills, Los Angeles.
Her vehicle collided with several cars, triggering a fiery explosion. So there were multiple fatalities. This is a horrible, horrible case. Asheri Ryan was 23 at the time and eight months pregnant. She died as well as her unborn child, her 11 month old son, Alonzo Quintero, her boyfriend, Raynald Lester also passed away and,
There were three other victims that were not disclosed as to their names in separate vehicles. Several other people sustained injuries and eight vehicles were damaged in the crash. She was arrested and sent to the hospital where she was treated for minor injuries.
Just to start off, Mark, I remember when it came across social media, lots of people talking about it, as I said, watching the news stories about it. It's so tragic. Yeah. When you hear a story like this, you can never really feel what it's like for either her or the victim's families. You can't really feel it until you're
participant in something like this, but you always, you know, your mind just fills up with questions of why or how, and, you know, this, this story, um, being a nurse, you know, I know all the times we've talked, you know, your, um, experiences as a nurse and the, and the
All the emotional turmoil that you can have and the struggle that you can have with mental illness as a nurse, mental instability sometimes. I just think I questioned what was going on in her life.
Right. Yes, exactly. 2022, this is right in the middle of 2022. We were still kind of dealing with sort of the tail end of the pandemic. I think a lot of people around that, a lot of nurses around that time were dealing with sort of the PTSD from the pandemic at that point. I remember thinking that. I remember thinking,
There maybe weren't a lot of COVID cases in the hospital, but there still were some. And I remember having times when I would get a COVID patient and I would have all this anxiety. And I recognized that I was really suffering from PTSD. I was literally having a visceral response to having a COVID patient when really I
I was on a regular floor. I was at a travel nurse at the time and I was not even in, it was not, you know, during that time where having, you know, multiple patients with COVID and lots of people on ventilators and all of this stuff, the really stressful things that happened during COVID it, but yet just knowing that they had COVID having to put on the PPE, all of that stuff. I remember just the feeling that this just,
tenseness, anxiety, all those feelings just kind of... And so I think that a lot of people around this time were dealing with a lot of mental health issues that probably didn't even recognize that they were dealing with it. So I can't imagine how difficult it must have been for someone who has already pre-existing... The history of it. Right. Already has this history of mental health issues. And then on top of that,
dealing with all the distress and anxiety that went along with it. So that's kind of just initially the first thing that kind of pops into my mind. So she was charged with six counts of murder, including one count for the unborn child, five counts of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence. The Los Angeles district attorney announced that she faced potential life sentence if convicted.
She was denied bail due to the severity of the charges. So before we go on, Mark, I wanted to just take a moment to talk about one of our sponsors, Magic Mind. You guys know I talk about them all the time. They've been very good to us. I have been taking this now for, I guess, maybe about six months or so. And
As you guys know, I don't have sponsors unless I believe in the product. And so when they first sent this to us and we all tried it, I tried it, you tried it, Joel, all of us. Every time you go to the refrigerator and half the box is gone, you know somebody's been here. Yeah. So...
I feel like everybody knows kind of how I feel about it. I love it. It helps me. One thing that I find funny that we joke around about a lot is we need something to take to help us remember to take it. Yeah.
That's one thing. But one way I do know that I haven't, it will remind me. I'll be sitting here working, like looking through charts, looking through medical charts, and I'll read the same line over and over again. And I'm just like, why am I reading the same line? And I'm like, oh, I didn't take magic mind. So I'll run in there and take it really. And I'll even be like, hey, did you take your magic mind? You're like, not yet. I'll go take it.
You guys, I would not say this if it wasn't true. I couldn't do it. I just, I can't. This stuff really helps with mental alertness for me.
It really does help my coffee sort of like last throughout the day so that I don't have to just drink multiple cups of coffee. I just love it. I don't know what else to say. You know me, I don't even drink coffee. I don't like taking medicine or anything really. But this, I just, I tried it because you asked me to and I just could tell, I could tell my alertness was better working and I just loved
continued and now it's just a part of my everyday morning routine. And yeah, the alertness I can, it seems like being able to remember names better and just thinking I'm working with a lot of young guys and developers, you know, and I feel like it helps me keep up with the conversations, you know.
Yeah. And Joel loves it too. And we were all the time kind of like fighting over who's going to like, okay, wait, you can't have more than one a day. Because at one point, Joel was taking like two a day. And I'm like, wait, what are you doing? You don't even need to do that. You only need one a day.
So yeah, guys, it's great. Magic Mind. You can go to magicmind.com forward slash GNBN20 to get 20% off for one-time purchases and subscriptions. That's magicmind.com forward slash GNBN20. So Nicole Linton's defense attorneys revealed her history of severe bipolar disorder,
They said that she had a documented 2008 involuntary psychiatric hold after a manic episode. The prosecutors countered that by saying that her 13 prior crashes, some involving injury, that would be actual evidence of a pattern of reckless behavior. I don't know how to think about that because on one hand, you have someone who clearly has a documented history of a severe mental illness.
What do you do there? I do have a lot of compassion for her. I really do. I don't know what to think about this situation. But at the same time, I think about the six victims, the six fatalities and other victims involved in this crash and their families. Yeah. When I hear of the pattern, the history of hospitalizations and
13 prior crashes. I mean, that to me is a huge indicator that something was bound to happen. That's how I feel about looking at it after the fact that it seemed obvious that eventually something was going to happen. So I don't know who's culpable for that. I mean, she obviously has to own something of it.
But a lot of people must have known. And the thing is, this could be a slippery slope for people who suffer from mental health disorders because, number one, what are you going to do? Are you going to say, well, if you have a severe mental health disorder, you cannot drive, you can't operate a vehicle? Maybe. I mean, you do that for seizures, for people who have seizures. If you were someone who was known to have seizures, you cannot drive. Right.
You have to go like six months, you know, you have to take medicine, you have to go six months without. People have problems with narcolepsy. Right. So. So you're not allowed to operate a vehicle. And I think for a lot of people, that would just seem impossible. You have to provide for your family. You have to, you know, you have to make a living.
So it seems like it would probably hinder people from getting help for mental health disorders. Maybe people would perceive it as being punished. But at the same time, you are operating a dangerous piece of machinery that is putting lives at risk. Yeah, I mean, you always hate to say anything that's going to
affect someone's life in a negative way. But the reality is we all live together on this earth and we have to think of the whole of the picture. And this was just something that, you know, of course took, ended up taking lives. And that's what, that's why you would have to do something about it before is to avoid, you know, the, the impact to the whole community. Yeah.
Instead of one person. You know, a couple of years ago, I had the prosecutor's podcast, the host, Brett and Alice, they came on to Good Nurse, Bad Nurse, and talked about the Redonda Vaught case and how, you know, I felt like it was a case that should not have been tried in criminal court. I felt like it was a...
good faith mistake that was made by a nurse and whether or not she should have lost her license was completely immaterial. It was completely as a separate issue that completely separate from whether or not she should have been charged criminally. And what they said is that, that sometimes the way the prosecutors look at it is they
Does our society need to be sent a message? And they may take a case like this and use it as sort of like setting an example for our society that says, just because you have a mental illness and you get behind the wheel of a car and that mental illness causes you to be out of control and you do something that affects the life of someone else, you're not going to be given a pass. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, and it's...
It's understandable that in a given moment, maybe she didn't have control, but she was a nurse. Nurses are very capable people. So she had many opportunities that she was in a place that she could recognize her situation and the dangers.
driving. Well, the crash became obviously a major news story, sparking public outrage. The victims' families held vigils, called for justice. They wanted to emphasize how preventable this really was. It was completely unnecessary. Advocacy groups highlighted the need for stricter road safety measures and improved mental health interventions.
So in 2023, the defense continued to argue that her mental health should mitigate her culpability. The prosecution insisted that it was gross negligence. They emphasized that the high speed at which she was driving, I guess the way they looked at that is if just because she's suffering from a mental health crisis, she would still have control over whether or not she was driving fast.
I don't know. The awareness of the risks associated with her actions is what they're saying. She even...
someone with bipolar, even in a manic phase, even whatever the situation is, what the prosecution is saying is that she still would have had an awareness of the risks associated with her actions and being aware that she's risking the lives of not only herself, but other people. So a court order was done that requested additional psychiatric evaluations to assess her mental state at the time of the crash and
and her fitness for trial. She is still, as of 2024, in custody awaiting trial. Legal proceedings continue to face delays as both sides prepare the cases. Mental health assessments are expected to play a central role in the trial. The case obviously has sparked a lot of debate on how the legal system should handle cases where severe mental illness may contribute to criminal behavior.
Advocates are calling for stricter laws to deter high-speed driving in urban areas. That's the thing. If someone is having a mental health crisis, laws really aren't going to mean a whole lot. Or are they? I don't know. I mean, do you have the ability? Is there something inside of you that if you're having a mental health crisis like that, if you don't care at all about your own life,
Just not caring about your own life. And do you even have the ability to think how it's impacting someone else in that moment? Right. In the moment. I think, I think the tragedy had already happened before that moment came for her. But I, I just can't accept that she didn't have opportunities to avoid this.
Well, and that is one, and this is the real reason I wanted to discuss this case because I want people to think about this. There are so many times when I was working at the bedside and taking care of patients in a level one trauma center where I dealt with traumas, with car accidents, people sometimes intentionally do things to harm themselves, sometimes intending to
you know, fatally to harm themselves. And it doesn't always work out. And, um,
The thing is, if you are in a mental health crisis and you just think, well, my life doesn't matter. And you're just kind of let yourself, you let yourself go. You keep going down that road. You know, at some point, you know, if you kind of back up, there's a point in which you are in control and you keep going down that road. You decide to not take your medicine, whatever it is.
you decide not to get help when you feel yourself going down that road, there's a pivot point where you're okay and then you're not okay. And it seems like if you could back there at that crucial moment, make the decision to get help at that point, to go to the doctor, do whatever you have to do to reach out
For help before it gets to that, because like you said, by the time you get to this point, you don't have really the ability to reason. But that is that doesn't necessarily mean that you're not going to be held accountable for your actions. Unfortunately, I don't see how society can function without having accountability for taking someone else's life.
Yes. She actually, I know that I've seen some news stories that said that she said she had had a seizure. She thought she had had a seizure and that she was completely paralyzed.
It had nothing to do with the mental health crisis, but then I know her defense had said it did have to do. So I don't, the medical professional, I believe in all of this, as I said earlier, this is all alleged and it's according to news articles, but a medical professional did say that they did not believe that she had had a seizure and they didn't feel like that's what caused the crash. Well, and for better or worse, our system has,
a jury and a judge and this would be a tough one to be a jerk. Yeah, it would be. And people have to make those judgments as best they can based on the facts. I mean, if I were convinced that she had a seizure, that would impact how I would feel about this, but I don't have the facts maybe like the jury does. And just looking at it from where I am, um,
I can't accept that this was not preventable and that she didn't have helpability. Well, she is awaiting trial now, so we will just have to kind of wait and see what happens. I would hope that it would be nice if we lived in a society where the criminal justice system could somehow help people in this situation. Unfortunately, it
it doesn't usually work that way. The criminal justice system is just sort of set up to punish, you know, hold people and almost just like a torture chamber for however long they have to be in there. So my heart breaks for, for obviously the people that were involved in this horrible, horrible accident. My heart also goes out to her and her family. I, I, I, there's, we have a lot of people in our family that, that suffer from mental health disorders and,
And so I wish there was some sort of answer for this that could help people going forward. It definitely needs to be addressed.
So I have to tell you guys about an experience I had with a nursing student. So you know, I've been doing travel nursing. Well, this hospital where I'm at has a lot of LPN students doing their clinicals there. So one of them was following me around one day, and she noticed my stethoscope. And of course, y'all know the Echo Technology Company that sponsors our podcast, they teamed up with Littman to make the stethoscopes to beat all stethoscopes, the 3M Littman Core Digital Stethoscope. And this is the one that I use now. So she said, Oh my gosh, I've been wanting to try one of those. So
So of course I let her use it and she just could not stop talking about it for the rest of the shift. It was so cute. She was like, you know, I can't hear anything with my normal stethoscope because I have tinnitus. And so she was so excited because she could actually hear what heart sounds were supposed to sound like. She said, I'm going to ask for one of these for graduation. And I was like, yeah, you definitely should. So just so you know,
The Echo technology that makes Testescope so amazing. You can enable it with a flip of a switch. You can turn it on and off. It has active noise cancellation up to 40 times amplification, wireless auscultation using Bluetooth technology. It connects with Echo's free app and software.
so that you can visualize, record, share, live stream, analyze heart sounds, lung sounds, and whatever body sounds you want to listen to. So you can go to echohealth.com and use the promo code GNBN to get $50 off your order. And that's echo is spelled E-K-O, by the way. So it's echohealth.com and use the GNBN promo code to get $50 off your order. So I guess that brings us to our good nurse.
I definitely want to offer a bit of a trigger warning because there is some suicidal ideation, I guess. So just, you know, we'll put that trigger warning in the description as well. It does have a good ending. So it's a good nurse story. And although sometimes the good nurse stories, you know, they're tragic because someone makes a sacrifice. In this particular case, it's a little different. And I love the way that it really balances out the bad nurse story for this, the way that this happens. It's a remarkable story of courage, compassion, and
and the unpredictable power of human connection, Charlotte Lay, a night shift nurse, overwhelmed by years of mental health struggles, was saved from a tragic decision by Dave, a train driver, whose quick thinking and heartfelt actions not only changed her life, but also set the stage for an extraordinary shared journey. So on a chilly night, Charlotte found herself at the train tracks, consumed by despair and believing she could no longer continue her
As the train approached, Dave spotted her figure in the dim light. With adrenaline and instinct guiding him, he immediately engaged the emergency brakes and brought the train to a halt just in time. Stepping out into the quiet night, Dave knelt beside Charlotte, speaking to her with calm compassion.
He said, I'd never had the opportunity to get out and help someone I saw on the tracks until that night. Something told me this time I couldn't just sit in the cab. So over 30 minutes, Dave listened to Charlotte's story, offering comfort and understanding. Gradually, she agreed to leave the tracks and accompany him to the police station where she was given immediate care and access to mental health resources. I want to see the movie. Yeah, this sounds like a movie. It's so...
sad to think of somebody being at this point. This is, again, another case where someone, you know, at some point there was a pivot, you know, that happened where everything is okay and then everything is absolutely not okay. It also highlights the beauty of mankind. I mean, someone like Dave would care that much. Well, yeah, to actually, to not just stop. I mean, he did what he had to do. He stopped.
but then to get out, to offer to comfort her, and to sit and listen to her for 30 minutes and then help her. So in the days that followed, Charlotte found herself reflecting on the man who had saved her. Determined to thank him, she began searching for Dave, eventually obtaining his number through a mutual colleague.
She reached out, and what began as a conversation of gratitude turned into regular chats and then in-person meetings. This shared trauma of that night forged a unique bond between them, so what started out as friendship blossomed into something neither could have expected.
Over time, Charlotte and Dave grew inseparable. Their relationship, a testament to the resilience of human spirit and the healing power of connection. Their journey from despair to joy culminated in a wedding that celebrated not only their love, but also the remarkable circumstances that brought them together. Charlotte said, I never thought that night would lead to this. Dave didn't just save my life. He gave me a new one.
So their love story took another extraordinary turn when Charlotte, ever the nurse, encouraged Dave to seek medical attention for persistent back pain he had been ignoring. Though Dave initially dismissed it as part of aging, Charlotte's persistence led him to see a doctor. Tess revealed an early stage testicular cancer diagnosis, one that could be treated successfully due to its timely discovery.
Charlotte saved me, Dave said. I wouldn't have gone to the doctor if it weren't for her insistence. She's my guardian angel in more ways than one. Dave underwent treatment and made a full recovery, a testament to the power of mutual care and the importance of listening to loved ones. The couple now uses their story to advocate for mental health awareness, suicide prevention, and the importance of proactive healthcare.
Charlotte and Dave's journey from a dark night on the tracks to a life filled with love and purpose has touched hearts worldwide. They speak openly about their experiences, hoping to inspire others to look out for one another and seek help when life feels overwhelming.
Sometimes life throws you into situations that seem unbearable, Dave said, but if you can hold on, you never know what might be waiting just around the corner. Their story reminds us all that even in the darkest moments, compassion can light the way, and sometimes the person who saves your life might just end up sharing it with you. That's an amazing story. I know. This story just, I can't even...
as horrible and dark and despairing as the other story is. And it just is. And there are, there are just countless stories like that to be able to hear a story like this is, it is so uplifting and so encouraging. Yeah. Renews your hope in people. Yes. I, I can't get over how not only just all of the things like,
Not only did he save her life, so many things had to happen in order for that to happen. He had to notice her in time to be able to stop a train. I didn't know you could stop a train. I didn't either.
I really didn't either. I mean, he had to have must've seen her, you know, the flicker of her figure in just in time. And then for him to reach out the way he did for her to then want to reach back out to him, for them to connect the way they did. And then for her being a nurse to literally save his life, um,
And recognizing the symptoms that he was having and telling him to go to the doctor. I'm telling you, this is just probably one of the best good nurse stories I've done in a very, very long time. And I was really happy when I found it. Well, thank you so much for coming back on the show and talking about these stories. I know they're not easy to talk about, but I appreciate it.
And guys, if you want to reach out to me, you can send me an email at tina at goodnursebadnurse.com. Of course, you can go to our website at goodnursebadnurse.com. And we're on social media at goodnursebadnurse. But before we leave, of course, I always have to remind you, even if you're a bad girl or a bad boy, be a good nurse.