Three Nursing Home Employees Arrested
Bakersfield, Calif (Feb. 28, 2009) — A nurse, doctor and a pharmacist of the Kern Valley Healthcare District have been arrested for allegedly drugging patients for “convenience.”
According to a press release from the office of Atorney General EdmundG. Brown Jr, the medical staff “forcibly” administered psychotropic medications to patients that ultimately may have resulted in the death of three elderly residents.
“These people maliciously violated the trust of their patients by holding them down and forcibly administering psychotropic medications if they dared to question their care,” Brown said. “This is appalling behavior, which amounts to assault with a deadly weapon.”
California Department of Justice special agents arrested:
Gwen Hughes, a former Director of Nursing at the Kern Valley Healthcare District, Debbi Hayes, a former pharmasist and Dr. Hoshang Pormir, a staff physician with the facility.
Huges and Hayes have been charged with elder abuse and assault with a deadly weapon. Pormir has been charged with elder abuse.
Several of the patients of the nursing facility alleged to have had medicl complications as a result of being given the psychotropic medictions, including lethargy and the inability to eat or drink properly, the release states.
“It is believed that three patients died and one patient suffered great bodily injury as a result,” Brown said.
