An email from the Capital & Coast DHB dated February 13 last year expressed concern other staff had tried to cover up for the man. In explanation, the man said he had been drinking at a family barbecue earlier that day but he "felt fine" before starting his shift at 2.30pm.
He said that while at work he received an "urgent" phone call from his son who had returned home from the beach to find no one there.
Concerned the boy would be home alone, the man told colleagues he needed to "pop out" and took a work van without permission.
After dropping his son off with a neighbour, he was involved in a crash with another vehicle.
The man had a breath alcohol reading of 801 micrograms of alcohol per litre of breath. The limit for drivers aged over 20 at the time was 400mcgs and has since been lowered to 250mcgs.
DHB investigators said the man's reading begged the question what state he had been in when he arrived at work five hours earlier.
The man, who was a long-serving senior nurse, conceded he had made "poor and impulsive judgment calls".
