Court papers: Former nurse's aide accused of abusing elderly patient

Posted at: 05/31/2012 4:56 PM | Updated at: 05/31/2012 7:52 PM
By: Amanda Ciavarri | WHEC.com

A former certified nurse’s aid is accused of abusing a patient at Medina Memorial Hospital.

Medina Police say Tamara Jefferies pushed an 80-year-old woman into a chair so hard it caused neck, back and shoulder pain. Now she is charged with  endangering the welfare of an incompetent or physically disabled person.

“I feel like I dropped the ball. I feel like I should have stayed although I know there was nothing I could have done.” Loretta Lewandowski says it’s hard to not blame herself. She says her mother 80-year-old Bessie Brady was at Medina Memorial Hospital getting a blood transfusion the day before Mother's Day.

She stayed over night to be watched and what Lewandowski was told happened in the early morning hours makes her sick. “We were told she stood up and this CNA worker ran over to her and slammed her back in the chair and punched her.”

According to court paperwork filed with the Orleans County District Attorney's Office, 24-year-old Tamara Jefferies, a certified nurses assistant, is now charged with endangering the welfare of an incompetent or physically disabled person.

In the paperwork, two Medina Memorial Hospital nurses give statements to the Medina Police Department saying they saw this happening.

In one of the statements the nurse says, “I heard Tamara yelling, saying, ‘I'm going to hurt her." It goes on to describe how Jefferies grabbed Brady by the neck and arm and pushed her down into the chair and how Brady hit her face on the back of the chair.

The nurse says Jefferies then yelled with an expletive,”I don't care (expletive). Fire me."

Lewandowski says she was shocked to hear the nurses tell her what happened. “These are people that are about health and taking care of someone. So the last thing you would think is that you're gonna be harmed there.”

But she is grateful the two did the right thing and spoke up about what Jefferies allegedly did. “I appreciate them whole heartedly for standing up and knowing this was one of their fellow employees and not worrying about if it would come back down on where they work. My mother came first.”

Jefferies was arrested and arraigned on the charge last week. She is due back in court Monday morning.

Jefferies was placed on administrative leave right after the incident. News10NBC checked today and she is no longer working with the hospital.

Have a story you want our news team to investigate? Call us at 585-232-1010, click here to send us an e-mail or leave us a Facebook post or tweet.

Print Story