- A Millcreek nursing home employee was charged Thursday with aggravated abuse of a vulnerable adult.
- The nurse allegedly assaulted an 85-year-old hospice patient, causing her to fall.
- The woman died four days later, but an autopsy found it was unlikely the alleged assault contributed significantly to her death.
MILLCREEK — A nurse at a Millcreek nursing home was charged Thursday with assaulting a patient who later died.
David Schwendiman, 51, of West Jordan, is charged in 3rd District Court with aggravated abuse of a vulnerable adult, a second-degree felony.
On Feb. 14, an administrator at Sandstone Nursing Home, 3855 S. 700 East, contacted Unified police to report that Schwendiman, who was an employee and nurse at the facility, had assaulted an 85-year-old woman who was also a hospice patient, a couple of days earlier, according to charging documents.
When officers tried to talk to the woman, she exclaimed, "He hit me! He hit me!" and also claimed that Schwendiman yelled an obscenity "to her face during the incident," the charges allege.
Officers reported seeing "multiple bruises on her knees and face."
The administrator also provided officers with surveillance video of the incident. In the video, Schwendiman is "lightly leaning over (the woman) in an aggressive manner" before he "walks around to the side of (her) walker and kneels down," the charges state. The woman then "pulls her walker to the side and starts walking away from Schwendiman," who follows and puts up his hand signaling the woman to stop.
But after pumping his arm up and down, as if telling the woman to stop, Schwendiman "uses both hands to grip the front of (her) walker. Schwendiman then leans toward (the woman's) face while holding onto her walker, preventing her from moving away from him. Schwendiman suddenly rips (her) walker off the ground and away from her," according to the charges.
The woman falls to her knees and attempts to brace the rest of her fall with her hands, but "is unable to hold her weight due to her falling so abruptly and hits her face and head on the ground," the charges say.
The woman died eight days later. An autopsy determined she "suffered blunt force injuries consistent with a ground-level fall," but "it was unlikely that the assault contributed significantly to her death," according to the charging documents.
Prosecutors, however, said in the court documents that due to Schwendiman "intentionally pulling the elderly victim's walker off the ground and away from her, causing her to fall to both knees and hitting her face and head on the ground, while employed as her nurse and caretaker, (he) constitutes a substantial danger to the community."
