Granddaughter speaks out after JCMC nurse allegedly used grandmother's debit card

Yahoo

30-01-2025

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (WJHL) – While Cyra Bullock's grandmother Wilma West was hospitalized at the Johnson City Medical Center (JCMC), a nurse allegedly used her debit card to make fraudulent charges. Now, Bullock is speaking out about how this situation was allowed to happen.
West was fighting fibrosis, blood clots, COVID-19 and pneumonia all at the same time while hospitalized at JCMC. That is when she received a call from Northeast Tennessee Credit Union about strange charges on her debit card.
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Bullock was able to find where the charges came from.
'We were able to get the order number for the American Eagle purchase from Northeast Credit Union,' Bullock said. 'So I took the order number from them and then got in contact with American Eagle and was able to get the transaction which had the card used as Wilma West, who is my grandmother. Then the shipping address had Charlotte's [Nangca] name on it.'
Charlotte Nangca, a nurse at JCMC at the time, reportedly used West's card to purchase items from American Eagle, Door Dash and Zara for $1,086.
Nangca has since been fired, arrested and charged with attempted credit card fraud and identity theft.
News Channel 11 was able to find records of Nangca's nursing license in Vermont being suspended. According to The Vermont State Board of Nursing, Nangca used a patient's checkbook to write herself a check for $1,200.
When we reached out to the Vermont Secretary of State's office, their chief of staff informed us these records were not made public until December 2024.
Ballad Health hired Nangca in September of 2024. She failed to self-report this prior incident.
2024-137-Charlotte-Nangca-Signed-Order_20241210T00Download
'It's just crazy to me that when she did that in Vermont and it was reported to the nursing board, that didn't transfer over to Tennessee,' Bullock said. 'Like it's hard to believe that you can go from one state to another and just not have that carry over with you. It's like, how are you still practicing with your nursing license after you've done this before, just because it was a different state?'
News Channel 11 also reached out to the Tennessee Department of Health about why Nangca was able to practice in the state. The department could not provide additional details, citing a Tennessee Code that keeps this confidential until formal charges are filed.
Specifically, Tennessee law provides that, '…materials, documents and other matters related to, compiled or created pursuant to, an investigation conducted by or on behalf of the department are confidential and not a public record…before formal disciplinary charges are filed against the provider…'. See Tenn. Code Ann., §63-1-117(f)(1)-(6).
– TN Dept. of Health
Bullock advises family members of those who have loved ones in medical facilities to take their valuable items home.
'I feel like I could have probably taken her purse and debit card and stuff,' Bullock said. 'I think people just need to be more aware of that. It's difficult in the moment, though, because you think that you can trust nursing professionals to take care of your loved one. It's not really something you think about, but I think it's important if you have someone in a facility to take their personal stuff home with them.'
Bullock is a home health nurse herself, so this situation is striking coming from her line of work.
'It blows my mind because, you know, I take care of people all the time,' she said. 'I would just never think to do something like that to somebody. Like, I want the best for all of my patients. It just would never cross my mind.'
Bullock is pleased with Ballad Health's actions since they learned of the fraudulent charges. Nangca has been terminated and Ballad will report the matter to her professional regulatory board.
'She [my grandmother] was kind of scared that before Charlotte got arrested she might try to come into her room or something,' Bullock said. 'Ballad moved her room a couple different times just to make sure that she felt safe.'
'She wasn't very angry at Charlotte, which is like, crazy to me because I was like, I just don't know. I don't know how she has that much kindness towards this person after all that,' Bullock said.
Bullock said this situation meant more to her family than just stolen money as her grandmother was diagnosed with fibrosis last year and given six months to a year to live.
'It's already hard enough to deal with losing someone and knowing you're going to lose them,' Bullock said. 'But then to have to go through something like this on top of it, it's like you're not taking just money away from a patient. You're taking literally precious time and some of our last moments together.'
West has been released from JCMC and is now home recovering.
Bullock said American Eagle has refunded her grandmother's funds, but they are still waiting to get money back from the other companies.
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