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Nursing Homes Abuse Blog By Jonathan Rosenfeld

Three New York Nurses Surrender Licenses After Being Charged with Nursing Home Abuse

Posted in Nursing Home Abuse, Nursing Home Injury

Graphic details have recently emerged about three New York nurses who subjected their nursing home patients to sustained verbal and physical abuse.

According to an article in Mid-HudsonNews.com, Myrna Siegel, an RN at the Sullivan County Adult Care Facility in Liberty, forcibly held down a patient and called her an “evil witch.” In another incident, Siegel told a resident who was resisting his medication that “he had a death wish and was going to die if he didn’t take his medicine.”

Behavior like this is simply unacceptable. Luckily, Siegel was caught by the Attorney General’s Office, and her license has since been revoked.

Sadly, two other New  York nurses have recently joined Siegel in having their licenses revoked by the Attorney General’s Office, due to mistreatment of patients.

Christopher Post and Stephen Thomas, both former CNAs from the Ferncliff Nursing Home in Rhinebeck, NY, were said to be involved in a suspicious incident involving a 94-year-old resident who broke his arm. According to Mid-Hudson news, Thomas asked Post to falsely claim that he helped assist Thomas in moving the patient, which Post did. Both Thomas and Post received unconditional discharges and surrendered their CNA certificates.

I definitely applaud the Attorney General’s office for having the courage to carry through with these investigations. However, I suspect that many more incidents of elder abuse might go unreported in these facilities. Studies have shown that just 1 in 23 cases of elder abuse are officially noted by authorities.

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