Nursing home resident suffering with dementia was pushed back into her chair by carer

A 31 year-old carer at a Co Meath nursing home was seen on CCTV pushing an elderly resident suffering from dementia "with some force" back into her chair, a hearing at Trim District Court heard on Thursday.

The carer, Sandra Ezeogukwu, with an address at Ardrum Court, Deanscurragh, Longford was charged with assaulting the 81-year-old woman at Sancta Maria Nursing Home in Kinnegad on 5th February 2020. The accused denied the charge.

Debbie Carey, director of nursing at the home, told an initial hearing of the case last December that on the CCTV footage she had seen a resident with a table in front of her with her top half leaning over the table.

She had seen the defendant put her hand over the resident "and pushing her back into the chair with some force". It was distressing to see this, she said.

The resident was distressed and could not speak. Ms Carey said that she then contacted her line manager about the incident.

A woman who was visiting another resident at the home gave evidence that she had seen a lady stand up from her chair and an alarm had gone off on the chair.

Immediately, a carer had come into the room and grabbed the lady by the arm – "I would like to emphasise the word grabbed" – and continued to push her into her seat, she said.

The resident had not spoken at all. The witness said that the woman had stood up again and this time the carer had said to her "You must remain in your seat, lady". She had pushed her into the seat and left the room.

On a further occasion when the lady stood up the defendant "seemed angry and she grabbed her and pushed her down into the seat. She just fell back into her seat and was quite stunned".

Defending barrister James O’Brien told the initial hearing last December that the CCTV footage had been "overwritten" and was not available, and this had hampered the defence case.

However, Inspector Michael O’Keeffe said that Ms Carey had viewed the footage and was able to describe what she had seen in relation to the incident.

The defendant said in evidence that she was into her second week of employment at the home and into her sixth day working there. She had been given one day’s training.

She had worked in a nursing home in Dublin and had never been the subject of complaint.

She said that the Sancta Maria home was short staffed because some of the staff had called in sick. There were "only three" on duty and they were responsible for 57 residents split into two sections.

The residents would be vulnerable to falls so an alarm would go off if they stood up. In this particular resident’s case there was no way she could have lifted her up on her own if she had fallen. On one occasion the lady had "slid down" and she had put her back on the seat. She denied "grabbing" her.

At the resumption of the case today, defending solicitor Maurice Regan (standing in for Mr O’Brien) said that in this case his client had been on her own looking after 11 residents, 3-4 of them "on alarms".

If the CCTV had been available the court would be able to see exactly how many people were working on that particular day. His client had not had sufficient training or support.

In a victim impact statement the family of the 81-year-old resident said that she had once been a carer herself and they wanted to say how appalled and upset they were at the way their mother had been treated. It was "unforgettable and unforgivable". "Nobody deserves to be treated like this," they said.

The court was told that the resident had since passed away.

Convicting the defendant, Judge Miriam Walsh said that it was highly regrettable that someone with dementia would be pushed back in her chair in such a rough manner. It was very unfortunate and very upsetting for the family of the resident.

She extended her sympathy to the family for what had happened. She added that in most nursing homes nothing like this ever happened. Nursing homes could not police the temperaments of their staff all the time.

She imposed a fine of €500 on the defendant and she sentenced her to three months imprisonment, suspended for six months.