A Cobb County caretaker face a felony charge after getting drunk, passing out and not hearing a 90-year-old hospice patient fall out of bed, authorities said.
Tracy Sanders, 55, of Marietta, was arrested last Tuesday after the elderly woman was left to lie on the floor for several hours, according to Cobb police arrest warrants.
The incident happened between 11 and 11:30 a.m. at a house off Rebel Ridge Drive, the warrants said. Sanders is accused of going to a neighbor’s house to drink alcohol, leaving the bedridden woman alone.
Sanders, who was hired to care for the woman, passed out at some point, which is when the elderly woman fell from her bed, the warrants said.
Sanders failed to check on the woman throughout the night, even after loud alarms “continuously sounded indicating that (she) had fallen out of her bed and was disabled ... on the floor for several hours,” police said. She did not respond to calls, knocking on doors and the ringing of the house’s doorbell, the warrants said.
She also did not wake up when first responders broke down a door to tend to the injured woman, who was taken to a hospital in an ambulance for dehydration and injuries stemming from her fall, the warrants said. Neither the victim’s condition nor her specific injuries were provided.
Sanders was also in control of the woman’s prescribed narcotic medications, the warrants said. Authorities found that 12 doses of her medication was missing, when only six doses was supposed to be given to the patient.
It’s unclear whether she’s accused of misplacing the medicine, taking it or giving the patient double her prescribed dosage.
The suspect was booked into the Cobb County jail, where she remained Monday night on a $8,470 bond, according to online jail records. She faces counts of reckless conduct and neglect to a disabled adult, elderly person or resident of care, which is a felony.
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