SPRING VALLEY, Wis. –
A western Wisconsin nurse has been charged with elder abuse, accused of amputating a hospice affected person’s frostbitten foot without his consent and without physician’s orders.
After she lower off the man’s proper foot final spring, Mary Okay. Brown, 38, of Durand advised her colleagues that she wished to show it at her household’s taxidermy store with an indication that stated: “Wear your boots youngsters,” in line with prices filed final week in Pierce County.
The amputation occurred on May 27, and inside a few week the 62-year-old man had died. The grievance provides no indication that the amputation hastened his demise, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.
Brown couldn’t immediatelybe reached for remark Thursday by The Associated Press. Online courtroom data don’t record an lawyer for her, and a cellphone name to her residence rang a number of instances and was not answered.
According to the grievance, the person was admitted to Spring Valley Health and Rehab Center after he fell at his residence in March. The warmth was not turned on and he suffered frostbite; the tissue in his foot turned necrotic and died, leaving it connected to his leg by one tendon and roughly 5 centimetres of pores and skin.
While on the Spring Valley heart, the person was getting separate care by way of St. Croix County hospice well being employees. Brown labored on the heart however was not a hospice nurse.
One nurse who had modified the man’s bandages on the morning of May 27 stated he may wiggle his toes, the grievance stated. Brown advised two different nurses at shift change that she was “going to chop off the sufferer’s foot for consolation,” however they advised her to not. Brown and two licensed nursing assistants went into the man’s room to vary his bandages, however Brown lower his foot off as an alternative, one of many nursing assistants advised an investigator.
Tracy Reitz, the middle’s director of nursing, discovered of the amputation two days later from a distraught nursing assistant, in line with the grievance. Reitz stated the nursing assistant advised her the person did not seem like in ache through the amputation, however one other nurse advised an investigator that the person stated afterward that “he felt every little thing and it harm very unhealthy,” in line with the grievance.
Brown advised an investigator that the person didn’t ask her to take away his foot, which she described as “mummy toes,” however she did it to make his high quality of life higher, the grievance stated. She acknowledged it was exterior her scope of follow and that she didn’t have authorization.
Brown has been licensed as a registered nurse in Wisconsin since July 14, 2020, in line with the Wisconsin Department of Safety and Professional Services. Kevin Larson, the administrator and CEO of Spring Valley Senior Living and Health Care Campus, stated Brown doesn’t presently work on the heart.