A nurse from Western Wisconsin You have been charged with elder abuse and accused of amputating the frostbitten foot of a hospice patient without his permission and against medical advice.
Charges filed last week in Pierce County allege that Mary K. Brown, 38, of Durand informed her coworkers that she planned to display the man’s severed right foot at her family’s taxidermy shop with a sign that read, “Wear Your Boots Kids.”
The 62-year-old man had his leg amputated on May 27. A week later, he passed away. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that the complaint makes no mention of how the amputation affected his death.
The Man was admitted to Spring Valley Health and Rehab Center after falling at his home in March, claims the complaint. Both feet have experienced frostbite due to the heat being off, necrotizing the tissue.
He had about five centimetres of skin and a tendon connecting his right foot to his leg.
The man was receiving separate care from St Croix County Hospice health professionals while he was at The Spring Valley Center. Brown was a staff member at The Center but wasn’t a hospice nurse.
One Nurse Who Had Changed The Man’s Bandages On The Morning of May 27 Said He Could Wiggle His Toes, The Complaint Said.
At shift change, Brown revealed to two additional nurses that she was Brown entered the man’s room with two certified nursing assistants to change his bandages, but Brown accidentally cut off his foot. An investigator was informed otherwise by one of the nursing assistants.
Tracy Reitz, The Center’s Director of Nursing, Learned of the Amputation Two Days Later From A Distraught Nursing Assistant, According to The Complaint.
Says Reitz The nurse’s aide spoke to her According to the complaint, despite the fact that the man didn’t appear to be in pain during the amputation, another nurse told the investigator that the man later claimed that “He Felt Everything and It Hurt Vray Bad.”
Brown told an investigator that the man did not request that she remove His Foot, which she referred to as “Mummy Feet,” but that she did it to improve the quality of history, according to the complaint.
She admitted that it was outside of her area of expertise and that she lacked authorization.
The Wisconsin Department of Safety and Professional Services reports that as of July 14, 2020, Brown has held a valid licence as a registered nurse in Wisconsin. Kevin Larson, The Administrator and Ceo of Spring Valley Senior Living and Health Care Campus, Said Brown Does Not Currently Work at The Center..
Without consent, a US nurse amputated a man’s foot.
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