A 36-year-old nursing assistant from Baltimore was sentenced to 25 years of prison after pleading guilty to first-degree assault and first-degree abuse of a vulnerable adult, Maryland's attorney general said Sept. 19.
Obiageriaku Iheanacho was an agency geriatric nursing assistant working at Baltimore-based Autumn Lake Health Care Post Acute Care Center when she was caught on camera pushing Ellsworth Johnson-Bey, a 75-year-old patient with dementia, to the ground on May 15, 2022. Johns Hopkins Hospital providers diagnosed and treated him for a hip fracture before Mr. Johnson-Bey returned to Autumn Lake Health a few weeks later.
"Although attempts were made at physical therapy, Mr. Johnson-Bey never got out of bed again," according to a news release from the attorney general's office. "He eventually contracted pneumonia, developed blood clots in his lungs due to his inactivity and was diagnosed with COVID-19."
He died Sept. 5, 2022, and Ms. Iheanacho was charged Jan. 19.
A judge sentenced Ms. Iheanacho to 25 years of imprisonment with all but seven years suspended and five years of supervised probation after release. She is also prohibited from caring for vulnerable adults.
She has voluntarily surrendered her certified nursing assistant and certified geriatric nursing assistant licenses, according to the Maryland Board of Nursing.