Man pleads guilty after attacking two nurses, knocking one unconscious

A man who attacked two nurses at a Washington County hospital last year is going to prison. This comes after he pleaded guilty to aggravated assault charges.

11 Investigates has been covering violence against health care workers in our ongoing series Code Blue.

When we first introduced Donna Ruhl, she was going through intensive vision therapy, trying to get her life back after suffering a traumatic brain injury at work.

In January 2025, Donna and her husband Richard were working as nurses in the behavioral health unit at Penn Highlands Mon Valley.

Donna says a patient named Luke Bienia, 32, was upset about a phone call and started slamming the receiver. When she told him to stop, she says he started yelling at her. Her husband stepped in, trying to calm Bienia down. Then the attack started.

“He lunged back, which is when I struck the floor with my head,” Donna Ruhl said. “And when I woke up, Richard was on my left side, lying on the ground with him on top just punching him in the face over and over and over again.”

Richard Ruhl had minor injuries. His wife suffered serious injuries and has not been the same since.

Last week, Bienia pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated assault. Lesser charges of reckless endangerment, harassment and disorderly conduct were dropped as part of the plea agreement.

Meanwhile, Donna says she has permanent eye damage, tremors and lingering cognitive deficits. She’s gone through various therapies over the last year as she heals from the traumatic brain injury. She has not been able to return to work or her master’s program. At the time she was attacked, she was two semesters away from graduating and was also pursuing her LPN certification.

Donna wrote in her victim impact statement, “I am just trying my hardest to get back to who I was prior to Jan. 15.”

“Any loud noises or anger makes my body shake, and then the flashbacks start (always the same, me waking up, seeing Richard being punched and trying to help),” she wrote. “This man was not psychotic or demented, and he knew what was right and wrong and continued to choose wrongly.”

Donna Ruhl described the attack as “pure calculated violence” and said there should be zero tolerance for attacks on health care workers.

Some health care workers who experienced assaults have told 11 Investigates that the crimes often go uncharged, and even when a suspect is charged, the charges are often dropped.

Washington County District Attorney Jason Walsh told 11 Investigates that it was not going to happen with this case.

“Just because they’re a nurse in a behavioral unit, doesn’t mean they get to get assaulted,” Walsh said. “We’re gonna protect health care workers like we protect everybody else.”

Last year, 11 Investigates exclusively surveyed health care workers across Pennsylvania and received more than 500 responses. Eighty-nine percent said they had experienced physical violence by a patient. More than half of those people said they were injured in the incident(s).

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