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‘Fake nurse’ accused of treating over 4,000 patients in disturbing medical fraud
29-year-old Autumn Bardisa, in Florida, was arrested after she was found practising with a license.
A woman was arrested for allegedly impersonating a registered nurse and treating over 4,400 patients without a license. A bodycam footage released by the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office shows the moment cops nab her from her car.
What is the woman accused of?
The department is a statement said that 29-year-old Autumn Bardisa was arrested for “seven counts of practicing a health care profession without a license and seven counts of fraudulent use of personal identification information.”
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After being arrested, she was transported to the Sheriff Perry Hall Inmate Detention Facility. She is being held on a $70,000 bond.
How did the investigation begin?
Police said that Bardisa was hired on July 3, 2023 as an advanced tech nurse in a hospital. During her interview, she said she was an “‘Education first’ registered nurse, meaning that she passed the required schooling to become a registered nurse but had not yet passed the national exam to obtain her license.”
While getting appointed, she allegedly said she passed the exam and provided a license number to her employers. However, her license had a different last name; she told the hospital that it was her new name after getting married.
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However, one of her colleagues became suspicious after she was offered a promotion. The fellow employee discovered she had an expired certified nursing assistant license. After the employee reported the matter to the hospital authorities, an investigation was launched, which showed she was using someone else's license number with the same first name as hers. Eventually, she was terminated in January 2025.
The hospital later contacted FCSO to conduct a criminal investigation, and she was then arrested.
“This is one of the most disturbing cases of medical fraud we’ve ever investigated,” said Sheriff Rick, adding, “This woman potentially put thousands of lives at risk by pretending to be someone she was not and violating the trust of patients, their families, AdventHealth and an entire medical community. Thanks to great investigative work between our detectives and State Attorney R.J. Larizza’s Office and AdventHealth, along with our state and federal partners, she’ll now be held accountable for her reckless and dangerous actions.”
