News Release
February 18, 2009
Brown Announces Arrests of Nursing Home Employees Who Drugged Patients for Staff’s Convenience
BAKERSFIELD –Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. today announced the arrests of a nurse, physician, and a pharmacist of a nursing home for “forcibly administering” psychotropic medications for their own convenience, rather than for their patients’ therapeutic interests, actions that are alleged to have resulted in the deaths of three 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,” Attorney General Brown said. “This is appalling behavior, which amounts to assault with a deadly weapon.”
Earlier today, California Department of Justice special agents arrested three individuals:
• Gwen Hughes, the former Director of Nursing at the skilled nursing facility of the Kern Valley Healthcare District in Lake Isabella, Kern County on charges of elder abuse and assault with a deadly weapon.
• Debbi Hayes, the former pharmacist at the Valley Healthcare District, on charges of elder abuse and assault with a deadly weapon.
• Dr. Hoshang Pormir, a staff physician at Kern Valley Healthcare District, who was serving as the medical director of the skilled nursing facility, on charges of elder abuse.
Upon taking over as Director of Nursing in September 2006, Gwen Hughes ordered that Alzheimer’s and other dementia patients be given high doses of psychotropic medications to make them more tranquil and easy to control. She ordered the administration of these medications to patients who argued with her, were noisy, or who were otherwise disruptive. Two patients who resisted were held down and forcibly given injections.
Ms. Hughes is also alleged to have directed Debbi Hayes, the hospital pharmacist, to fill prescriptions for these psychotropic medications. Hayes wrote and filled these prescriptions without first obtaining a doctor’s approval.
Dr. Hoshang Pormir approved these psychotropic medications only some time after they had been administered and without examining the patients first and determining whether these psychotropic medications were medically necessary.
Several of these patients are alleged to have had medical complications as a result of being given these psychotropic medications, including lethargy and the inability to eat or drink properly. It is believed that that three patients died and one patient suffered great bodily injury as a result.
Criminal charges were filed in Kern County Superior Court. The defendants are being held in Kern County Jail in Bakersfield. They will be arraigned on Friday. If convicted, the defendants could face up to 11 years in prison.
The case is being prosecuted by the Attorney General’s Bureau of Medi-Cal Fraud and Elder Abuse, with the co-operation and assistance of the Kern County District Attorney’s Office.
To report elder abuse or Medi-Cal fraud, call the Bureau of Medi-Cal Fraud and Elder Abuse’s hotline at (800) 722-0432.
SOURCE: AG of California USA
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