FORMER NURSING ASSISTANT CONVICTED OF
NEGLECTING A VULNERABLE ADULT

Maryland Attorney General J. Joseph Curran, Jr. announced today that a former geriatric nursing assistant at Chester River Manor, located in Chestertown, was convicted of second degree neglect of a vulnerable adult by Judge J. Frederick Price in the Circuit Court for Kent County. Donishia Wilson, 22, of Potts Road in Worton, MD plead guilty in connection with an incident that occurred on February 5, 2005 while she was on duty at the facility and responsible for the care of the victim who is a resident of the facility. Sentencing is scheduled for June 16, 2006. Second degree neglect of a vulnerable adult is a misdemeanor carrying a maximum of five years in jail and/or a fine of $5,000.00.

The victim is a 87 year-old woman who suffers from dementia, seizure disorders, chronic pain as well as other health related issues. The victim also has extremely fragile skin. As a result of this latter condition, the victim's plan of care required that she could not be transferred in or out of bed by only one person. The victim experienced a severe skin tear on her left wrist and hand requiring 32 sutures when Wilson, who knew of the victim's condition and plan of care, grabbed the victim by the wrists and pulled on her skin in an attempt to transfer the resident from her bed to her wheelchair. Wilson admitted that she was frustrated with the resident who was agitated and combative. Wilson acknowledged that she had been trained to simply step back and seek assistance under those circumstances and that she failed to do so.

This case was investigated by the Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, which has authority to prosecute abuse or neglect of vulnerable persons in facilities that receive Medicaid funds.