Abuse of Incapacitated Adult: Caregivers Beat Resident Trying To Restrain
Legal Eagle Eye Newsletter for the Nursing Profession
May 1999
Quick Summary: Two non-licensed personnel working in a residential care facility were convicted of the felony offense of the willful creation by a custodian of an emergency situation for an incapacitated adult and the misdemeanor offense of battery, and sentenced to two to ten years in prison.
Their crimes were committed trying to restrain a patient residing in the facility where they were employed.
The two defendants refused to take direction from an experienced co-worker who knew how to take down and safely restrain a combative patient.
Instead, they taunted and cursed the resident, tore his clothes and struck him, for two and one-half hours, while his agitation escalated, apparently trying to intimidate him into behaving and following the rules.
The defendants created an emergency situation because their actions showed they had the willful intent to abuse this resident. Their convictions and sentences were appropriate.
SUPREME COURT OF APPEALS OF WEST VIRGINIA, 1998.According to the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia, the patient was a young man whose medical history included mild mental retardation, schizophrenia and self-injurious behavior. Having been determined to be a safety threat to himself and to others, he was placed in one care home, then transferred to the facility in question.
On admission to the facility in question he was noted to have a black eye and numerous bruises. He immediately ran away wearing no shoes or shirt, was caught walking down the center of a nearby highway and was brought back. He began banging his head against the floor and hitting himself. The court noted he had been kept heavily sedated at his prior placement, but was not sedated at the facility in question.
The resident was restricted to his room. A new, untrained worker was assigned to monitor him. The worker was told to keep the resident from leaving and to keep him from hurting himself. The resident asked to walk to the bathroom, then tried to run away again. The worker lost his patience, threw a potted plant and a medication cabinet, and called for help.
Two other new untrained persons responded, along with a more experienced worker who had been trained in restraining and de-escalating combative patients. The three untrained persons refused to follow the lead of their experienced co-worker. Instead, they took the resident to the kitchen and verbally and physically abused him for almost three hours trying to intimidate him into self-correcting his propensity to act out.
The resident had to be hospitalized for his injuries, following which his family removed him from the facility and filed criminal charges against the workers who had abused their son. State v. Easton, 510 S.E. 2d 465 (W. Va., 1998).
More references from nursinglaw.com
http://www.nursinglaw.com/abuse-patient.htm
http://www.nursinglaw.com/abuse-inflicted-pain.htm
http://www.nursinglaw.com/abuse2.htm
http://www.nursinglaw.com/abuse-neglect-disqualified.htm