Nurse Dick

A hospital had the right to fire a male nurse for having consensual sex with a patient two days after she underwent heart surgery, a state appeals court ruled Thursday.

The patient had double bypass surgery at Temple University on July 13, 2006, and had sex with nurse Richard Baldwin sometime around 4 a.m. on July 15, according to the opinion.

Hospital investigators said the patient indicated she was attracted to Baldwin and that the medications she was taking had nothing to do with what happened.

Baldwin testified before the arbitrator that he did not have sex with the woman, but investigators said he told them that the woman had come on to him and that he was being fired for having consensual sex.

Even if it was consensual, the sex act was a violation of state nursing standards and hospital policy, hospital officials argued.