• 17
  • January
    2012

Authorities are accusing a former nursing home assistant of second-degree murder for injecting a resident with insulin even though resident was not diabetic. The resident fell into a coma due to the injection and later died, police said. Meanwhile, the nursing aide was allegedly using the resident's credit card for her own purchases.

According to news reports, on April 1, 2009, the suspect, a 37-year-old woman, was working as a nursing home aide in Vermont. She is accused of giving an 83-year-old resident of the facility where she worked a shot of insulin. Diabetes patients often need insulin injections to help regulate their blood sugar levels, but for people who do not have diabetes, such shots can be dangerous.

The injection caused the resident to go into a coma, authorities said. The suspect then allegedly stole the resident's credit card. Over the next 10 days she used it for herself, continuing to do so even after the resident died. She has already been charged with 16 counts of financial exploitation of a vulnerable adult and attempted financial exploitation involving use of a credit card in connection with those alleged purchases.

After a lengthy investigation, police arrested the suspect in her new home in New Hampshire. She is expected to be extradited to Vermont, where she will face charges of second degree murder and abuse of a vulnerable adult.

If convicted of the latter two charges, the woman could face up to twenty years in prison on the abuse charge and life without parole on the murder charge.

Source: WFXT-TV, "A former Vermont nursing home worker faces murder charges," Jan. 17, 2012