A New York jury acquitted three former nursing home workers of homicide charges stemming from allegations that they ignored alarms warning of a disconnected ventilator.
While the former county employees dodged felony negligent homicide charges, however, each still earned misdemeanor counts of violating public health laws. One defendant, Martine Morland, 43, also was charged with a felony count of falsifying business records, Newsday reported.
Jurors reached their verdict in mid-October on their fourth day of deliberations.
The employees were alleged to be responsible for the death of Carmela Contrera, an 81-year-old resident of the A. Holly Patterson Extended Care Facility, in Uniondale, NY.
In December 2015, Contrera became disconnected from her respirator. Registered nurses Sijimole Reji, 43, and Annieamma Augustine, 59, and certified nurse aide Morland allegedly heard alarms indicating the disconnection, but they waited nine minutes to intervene.
There were 2,000-plus alerts in a 24-hour period when the situation occurred, likely causing alarm fatigue, the defendants’ attorneys argued in court.
Lawyers for the three also contended that the alarm did not sound throughout the entire unit, and that no alerts could be heard in the background during the recording of the original 911 call.
They also alleged that the county-owned nursing facility was understaffed, with employees “set up to fail.” North Shore-LIJ Health System, with which the facility is now affiliated, did not respond to a request for comment from McKnight’s.
Following the trial, lawyers representing the trio expressed disappointment with the verdict. Morland’s attorney, James Toner, said he planned to file an appeal for the felony conviction.
Attorney General Barbara Underwood said in a statement that she was “pleased that the jury held the defendants accountable to their obligations under public health laws.
“My office will continue to bring cases where medical professionals ignore a patient’s basic human needs or place a nursing home resident in a life-threatening situation,” Underwood added.
The case was tried in the Nassauw County Supreme Court.
From the December 2018 Issue of McKnight's Long-Term Care News
