Patti's Comments: I call on the legislature to act to make this a crime. This is horrible. Well done to the AG's office for their efforts!
From Detroit News: (click for entire article)
Three nursing home employees did not violate a law meant to protect patients from abuse when they arranged a dead woman's body into different poses and snapped pictures, the state appeals court has ruled. In a decision released Friday, the Michigan Court of Appeals unanimously ruled that because a dead body is not a person, it is not protected under a statute that protects patient abuse in nursing homes.
After Lillian McIntyre, 88, died in the Cherrywood Nursing Home in Sterling Heights on Oct. 13, 2004, nurse's aides Tahirah Shakur, Keisa Cooper and Nichole Jackson were told to prepare her body to be moved to a funeral home. The women "posed McIntyre's body by raising her hands into the air, putting her arms behind her head, and bending her knees," the appellate court ruling said. "They also patted McIntyre's hand and told her to 'wake up.' Shakur took a picture, using the camera on her cellular phone, of defendants Cooper and Jackson hugging McIntyre's dead body."
Employees at the nursing home found out what happened and alerted their bosses. The three women were fired after a hearing, but investigators with the Macomb County Department of Community Health determined there wasn't enough evidence to show they had violated the Public Health Code. The department did not revoke their nurse's aide licenses, although health officials cited the nursing home for a violation of patient dignity.
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