Here We Go Again...Allegations of Abuse Arise at Second Minnesota Nursing Home
Minnesota is still reeling from the abuse allegations at Good Samaritan in Albert Lea that led to two teenagers being charged with criminal abuse and sexual assault charges and four other teenagers charged with failure to report abuse. Now, the Minnesota Health Department has released a department report in which six residents suffered physical, sexual, and emotional abuse at the hands of an aide at Luther Haven Nursing Home in St. Paul, Minnesota. Five of the six residents have Alzheimer's disease or another form of dementia and a female victim with cancer died before the abuse was reported.
This most recently discovered abuse is believed to have gone on for approximately six months before a nursing assistant reported to a supervisor what she had seen in July 2008. The accused aide, whose name has not yet been publicly disclosed, has been accused of probing the genitals of a resident with vulvar cancer, providing lap dances for two male residents and making sexual advances toward one of them, including baring her breasts while getting him ready for bed. Other allegations of abuse include dropping a resident approximately four feet onto a bed and laughing, slapping a resident in the face, and emotionally tormenting a female resident by throwing stuffed animals she believed to be her children on the floor.
The aide, who has denied all allegations, was suspended on July 9, 2008 and fired two weeks later. It is possible that the accused aide will get away with the alleged abuse of her victims, according to Chippewa County Attorney Dwayne Knutson. Knutson said that he most likely will not go forward with charges because all but one of the victims has some form of dementia and the man who could discuss the abuse was "embarrassed and didn't want to talk with police".
To watch the MyFox newscast on this developing story, go to Minnesota Abuse.
