(Stillwater, Okla.) – In a case investigated by the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office, a certified nurse aide was charged Monday with caretaker neglect of a female resident at the Linwood Village Nursing Home in Cushing, court records show.
An arrest warrant was issued Monday for Adriana Krystal Lopez, 24, of Cushing, who was not in the Payne County Jail on Tuesday afternoon, a sheriff’s spokesman told KUSH.
David Williams, an agent in the AG’s Office, was assigned a case at the Linwood Village Nursing Home in Cushing on May 8, according to his affidavit filed Monday in Payne County court records.
Lopez was employed as a certified nurse aide on April 6 when she was in the room of “a vulnerable adult without the ability to move or transfer herself from her wheelchair to the bed,” at the nursing home, the affidavit alleged.
Lopez attempted to transfer the female resident “from her bed to her wheelchair” — alone and without assistance, the affidavit alleged.
The resident’s “medical chart states that she is a ‘two-person assist’ for all transfers,” the affidavit alleged.
“The facility uses the ‘red star’ method for transfers.
“In each room, there is a color-coded star that indicates the level of assistance the resident is required to have provided,” the affidavit alleged.
When Lopez attempted to transfer the resident from the bed to the wheelchair without assistance, the resident “fell to the ground causing injuries to her head,” the affidavit alleged.
“Adriana Lopez sought assistance from the housekeeping supervisor and told her she did not want to report this to the nurse,” the affidavit alleged.
“The housekeeper responded to the room and made contact,” with the resident, the affidavit alleged.
The housekeeper realized that the resident “was injured and insisted on Adriana Lopez reporting the fall and getting medical assistance,” for the resident, the affidavit alleged.
“Only after repeated request, Adriana Lopez sought medical assistance.
“The only explanation offered for the delay in medical treatment was she did not want to get into trouble,” the affidavit alleged.
“Adriana Lopez was aware of the procedure for utilizing the two-person assist,” the affidavit alleged.
“Further Adriana Lopez had been trained in the procedure and had also received training at the facility as to which residents were ‘two-person’ assist,” the affidavit alleged.
“By her own admission, Adriana Lopez was aware,” that the resident was a two-person assist, the affidavit alleged.
In addition to the investigating agent from the AG’s Office, six women have been listed as witnesses for the prosecution, court records show.
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