New South Wales nurse has been banned from practicing after a tribunal ruled she engaged in an inappropriate relationship with a mentally ill patient, a case that has drawn national attention for its unusual and deeply troubling details.
According to the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal, Dilnoor Kang, a nurse at Wagga Wagga’s mental health unit, developed a years-long relationship with a young male patient under her care, referred to as Patient A. The patient had been admitted multiple times between 2021 and 2022 for suicidal and psychotic episodes.
During this period, Kang took the patient on a trip to The Riddle Room escape experience in Canberra and was later seen hugging and kissing him, both at her home and inside her car.
Investigators found that over the course of a year, she exchanged up to 5,000 text messages and phone calls with him, a level of communication far beyond professional boundaries.
While the patient was undergoing treatment for acute psychosis in 2022, Kang visited him off-shift and appeared emotional during their encounter. The patient later confided in another nurse that he felt she was “playing with his head.”
According to Theguardian, the situation escalated in January 2024 when police were called after the patient allegedly slapped Kang during an argument at her home. Both confirmed they were in a relationship at the time.
Following an internal inquiry, the Murrumbidgee Local Health District dismissed Kang in September 2023. She later surrendered her nursing registration voluntarily in mid-2024. The case was subsequently referred to the Health Care Complaints Commission, which pressed for a formal finding of professional misconduct.
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Throughout the proceedings, Kang gave conflicting accounts, admitting to the relationship at times and denying it at others. She claimed she thought she had been messaging another man she met online, an explanation the tribunal described as “implausible.”
The tribunal determined Kang had provided false or misleading evidence when she denied having the patient’s number and downplayed their interactions. Although the panel did not classify the relationship as explicitly sexual, it said the evidence showed a “clear picture” of inappropriate intimacy and emotional entanglement.
“We are satisfied that the nature and gravity of the practitioner’s professional misconduct was objectively serious,” the judgment stated. “The risk of harm to a mental health patient in those circumstances is considerable.”
Kang has been disqualified from nursing for two years, with the ruling highlighting the ethical and professional responsibilities of those working in mental health care.
