Amber Van Brunt (PICTURE): Nurse Has Sex with Dying Patient, Loses License for 20 Years

By: Edecio Martinez
Topics: Daily Blotter

Amber Van Brunt (Oklahoma Board of Nursing)

OKLAHOMA CITY (CBS/AP) Amber Van Brunt, a 33-year-old nurse who worked in an Oklahoma hospice program, is being banned from the profession for 20 years after she allegedly had sex with a married terminally ill-patient at his home.

PICTURES: Notorious Teacher Sex Scandals

A hearing is set for Wednesday to consider an appeal filed by Van Brunt, who calls the discipline a "miscarriage of justice," according to The Oklahoman.

Van Brunt, of Shawnee, located east of Oklahoma City, worked in a program at Angelic Family Hospice that provided nursing care for patients at their homes.

The patient, who attempted suicide in March, two days after Van Brunt told him in a text message that she was pregnant by another man, died in May.

According to Van Brunt's attorney, she had a consensual relationship with the patient - a 43-year-old terminally ill man suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, known as ALS or Lou Gehrig's Disease.

The lawyer said that relationship was carried out on the nurse's "own personal time" while she was visiting as a friend, not while she was on duty caring for him.

The nursing board responded that it doesn't matter when it happened, although saying there is evidence of sexual contact during nursing visits.

"The nurse is the professional in this situation. It is the responsibility of the professional to say no to the vulnerable patient," the board's attorney told Oklahoma County District Judge Patricia Parrish. "The rules ...do not mean simply while you are on shift; they mean during the entire time ...you are assigned to the care of that patient, whether that is six days in the hospital or six months in hospice care or six years in a nursing home."

27 Photos

Notorious teacher sex scandals

Add a Comment

See all 183 Comments


by iamaqt33 January 25, 2011 1:11 AM EST: It's is funny to judge someone, especially since you don't know her or the situation at hand. It seems to me that it is all one sided. How do we know how the patient felt or what their relationship even was. I have know Amber from many years,she was my college roommate. I can't believe how people can be so cruel and mean about someone. She is a loving, caring person that would help the world if she could.Being tormented by people when they are only seeing one side of a story is just tacky. It is really easy for people to cast stones when they never walked a mile in someone elses shoes. It is so easy on their high horses to pass judgement if anyone knew their dirty little secrets they would be reduced to nothing.; Reply to this comment

by BryanFitz January 25, 2011 12:05 AM EST

I have read many comments here, a great many can not understand what she did wrong it was after all 2 consenting adults. Except one of those adults was completely paralyzed though he may have had full control of his facilities a person with ALS can not always consent due too loss of esophagus control. Technically this nurse is guilty of rape though his body was capable of a erection he simply could not perform in any other way. ALS Is a devastating disease it is always fatal and this guys family deserved so much more from this nurse. My wife of 30 years passed from ALS each and every person she and I were blessed to meet were of the highest caliber. This nurse was tasked with protecting this patient no matter how you define it she did not protect she exploited for her own pleasure.

The Medical community involved with ALS are among the very finest Medical Professionals I have ever met. This nurse is a blemish on that profession I hope she never gets her license again.

Instead of looking at this through your own eyes think of it like this. Make believe your Mother, Father, Husband, Wife were completely paralyzed / crippled they can not move any of their voluntary muscles all voluntary muscles are atrophying even too the point where they have lost the ability too speak it is only a matter of time where their Diaphragm is going to weaken completely and start too atrophy at that point they die. Well shortly before that point your Mother, Father, Husband, Wife have what is described as consensual sex how would you react?

Reply to this comment


by Rajah88 January 25, 2011 12:55 AM EST: My reaction:

Your prurient interest in the sex lives of others is mental illness.


by spaceatoms January 24, 2011 11:35 PM EST: She was just fulfilling one final wish and she is extremely hot!; Reply to this comment


by pancho100 January 24, 2011 8:33 PM EST: Must be nurses are cops now on duty all the time, works for me
;;;---)))); Reply to this comment

by Rajah88 January 24, 2011 8:13 PM EST

Religious law has slithered into civil law and the religious fanatics have others doing their dirty work. America becomes more like Saudi Arabia every day.

Religion poisons everything.

Reply to this comment


by morgansher January 24, 2011 8:42 PM EST: You are so right!


by Whitey_Lawful January 24, 2011 6:30 PM EST: Adultery is now grounds to lose your job, or was it because he was terminally ill?; Reply to this comment


by SandmanUSMC January 24, 2011 4:49 PM EST: Now that's what I call full service.; Reply to this comment

by bajajohn1 January 24, 2011 4:27 PM EST

All your comments are correct, but you forget to mention that this occurred in Oklahoma. Okies are a strange bunch a very, very, very Bible belt people. Some of the most conservatives in the world live in Oklahoma. Oil people who do not want to pay taxes and rednecks living in trailers populate this state.

Reply to this comment


by GerardSorme January 24, 2011 6:24 PM EST: How completely ignorant. Oklahoma City is an incredibly nice city, very metropolitan and the "trailer house" image is about as correct as saying all Alaskan's live in igloos. Conservative? Yes, probably. So is Dallas. Kevin Durant (OKC Thunder) said he is amazed at how OKC still has this backward image in parts of the country. It's because of people like you who haven't a clue as to what you're talking about.


by MekhongKurt January 24, 2011 6:46 PM EST: @GerardSorme, the cartoonish stereotype of Oklahomans is indeed often grossly unfair -- and that's coming from some Okie's arch-enemies: a Texan. But we Terxans suffer from that crap,m too.

However, stereotypes sometimes do have one foot in truth, or at least a little toe. Oklahoma -- like much of Texas -- is indeed quite conservative by national standards. Similarly, it is quite religious and is so in a very conservative way, again based on some sort of ill-defined -- yet there -- national "average," if you will. For instance, take the Oklahoma legislature's efforts of late regarding proposl regarding Islam and abortion. (I'm not trying to start a fight over either of those topics, only mentioning them as examples of occasions when some Americans -- incuding some Oklahomans -- have noted and taken exception to those proposals.) Also on the political level, neither of Oklahoma's Senators nor many of it's representatives in Congress (as far as I know) will ever be accused of being even just centrists, let alone liberal. No condemantion there, just mentioning part of the basis for stereotypes.

I grew up on a small ranch, so, predictably, I grew up around livestock. Had a horse. Worked cows. raised pigs. Rode and fixed fence. Cleared brush and timber. All that stuff. But I also went to private school for the first half of my education before going off to college. And when I left for college, I left for good -- I'm no more cowboy, not at heart, than a guy whose never crossed outside the burough boundaries of the Bronx. I also have lived abroad many years, in the Orient.

So, people who meet me in my international life are surprised when they discover my cowboy background. Similarly, those who used to know me as a guy growing up on a ranch were surprised when they learned about stuff such as my private schooling. It isn't nor was it a case of a sqaure peg not fitting in a round hole -- it is, and was, a case of a weirdo peg that wouldn't fit into *any* hole! ;^)

Try not to take the taunts that go with stereotype too much to heart. I'm crowding 60 now, and have FINALLY learned pretty much to ignore ignorant fools' blatherings.

Makes life a heap more pleasant. . . .

by LA_thing January 24, 2011 3:27 PM EST

Hmmm, I guess he was coming rather than going...

Reply to this comment


by froggytuff--2008 January 24, 2011 7:54 PM EST: haha The comments section is way way cooler.

this comment made my day.


by Zann-Zel January 24, 2011 1:38 PM EST: If she wanted to have an affair with the man why didn't she let someone else have the job of being his nurse?

I wouldn't judge her for what happened between 2 consenting adults but it was a stupid move careerwise!; Reply to this comment