Five nurses at a Denver area hospital were suspended for viewing a deceased man’s genitals and discussing the size with other hospital staff.
The incident occurred at Denver Health Medical Center between March 31 and April 3, 2017, but it wasn’t reported to hospital supervisors until May 8.
A hospital spokesman confirmed the incident to Denver7 News after a tipster phoned the news station on Tuesday.
The tipster said the 5 nurses opened the body bag at different times to view the deceased man’s genitals, then discussed the body part with other hospital staff.
“Multiple staff members viewed the victim while he was incapacitated, including after he was deceased,” a Denver Police report says.
Denver Health Medical Center spokesman Josh Rasmussen said another nurse overheard the nurses talking about the deceased man’s genitals. She reported the incident to Risk Management officials who launched an investigated.
The nurses who inappropriately viewed the deceased man’s genitals were suspended. 4 of the nurses have since returned to work. One nurse resigned and no longer works at Denver Health Medical Center.
Denver Health officials reported the incident to the Denver Police Department.
Denver Police confirm they responded to the incident but decided to let the hospital investigate the incident internally.
“A DPD officer did speak with one of our on-call prosecutors at the time,” Ken Lane, communications director for the Denver District Attorney’s Office, said. “They determined there was insufficient evidence to prove a crime was committed, no charges were filed, and referred the matter back to Denver Health to handle internally.”
The nurses were not identified.
