A Colorado health care worker is in jail, and another is about to be arrested, after authorities accused them of elder abuse in connection with injuries sustained by a 92-year-old woman with “severe dementia.”
Patience Jackson, 33, was arrested in her home on Wednesday, according to the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office. She has been charged with criminal negligence, crimes against a vulnerable person, and complicity, all felonies.
Zainab Namale, the other suspect, was served with an arrest warrant and given 24 hours to turn herself in while in Miami, according to KDVR.
The investigation began on May 9, when a sheriff’s deputy, known as “Investigator VanCleave,” arrived at Sky Ridge Medical Center on a report of elder abuse involving the 92-year-old unnamed victim.
According to the sheriff’s office, hospital employees were concerned because the woman had two broken bones in her lower leg—fractures in both her shinbone and calf bone.
The woman was reportedly brought to the hospital the day before from the Orchard Park Health Care Center, which is about eight miles away.
However, hospital staff informed the investigator that the victim’s injuries “were not consistent” with those described in the rehab center’s report.
According to the report, no one knew what had happened — the woman was discovered sitting in her wheelchair “screaming for help in terrible pain” — and no one had seen her fall, the sheriff’s office stated. Multiple employees at the center tried to explain how the injury happened.
According to an affidavit obtained by KUSA, Jackson, a certified nursing assistant, and Namale, a licensed practical nurse, reported that the woman was injured while sitting in her wheelchair.
According to the center’s director of nursing, the victim was injured while being moved from her wheelchair to her bed, and other employees stated that the woman was known for “planting her feet” while being helped, which could have resulted in the twisting motion and fractures.
The hospital staff remained unconvinced.
A surgeon reportedly stated that the injury was not a spiral fracture, as suggested by the rehab center employees, but rather a “clean break” in two places that could not have occurred while she was in a wheelchair.
As the investigation progressed, the investigator concluded that Jackson and Namale were “likely untruthful” about how the woman was injured.
He also believed they “were complicit in their actions to hide the truth of what happened to the victim.”
Jackson was jailed at the Arapahoe County Detention Center on a $2,500 bond.
It is unclear whether Namale was arrested on Thursday or is still wanted. The sheriff’s office added that the investigation is ongoing.
