Several nurses who worked at an Ohio nursing home have been indicted after Ohio’s attorney general said they mistreated two patients at the home.
Dave Yost made the announcement Thursday, CNN reported.
He said that a grand jury in Franklin County, Ohio, said that the nurses worked at Whetstone Gardens and Care Center in Columbus in 2017.
Six of the nurses charged are either current or former employees of the facility. The seventh person was a contracted certified nurse, CNN reported.
Yost said one of the patients under the care of the nurses "literally rotted to death," while another patient was harmed because the nurses faked the patient's medical records and forged signatures.
Yost said during a news conference the first patient had wounds on his body in February 2017. They became gangrenous and necrotic, but nurses delayed taking him to a hospital. They eventually did, but it was too late. He died on March 5, 2017 at the hospital due to septic shock from the wounds, according to CNN.
Three of the nurses now face involuntary manslaughter, gross patient neglect and patient neglect charges for not taking medically appropriate steps that could have saved the man’s life.
Facility spokesperson Ryan Stubenrauch denies that the employees were responsible for the death of the patient.
Stubenrauch told CNN facility officials have been working with law enforcement on the allegations for about two years.
“We’re confident that this man’s tragic death was not the result of neglect at our facility,” Stubenrauch told CNN.
Four employees were fired immediately for falsifying the other patient's records, Stubenrauch told CNN.
Treatments were listed on a female patient's records when she was not physically at the center, CNN reported.
Five nurses were indicted on charges of forgery and gross patient neglect.
Two of the employees who are charged with manslaughter were suspended pending the investigation's outcome. The contracted certified nurse no longer works at Whetstone Gardens, Stubenrauch told CNN.
No pleas have been entered and none of the accused have attorneys listed, CNN reported.
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