Nurse Gets Probation Following Baby’s Death, Three Other Nurses Disciplined

The state Board of Examiners for Nursing Wednesday placed an East Hartford nurse’s license on probation for two years in connection with the death of a 13-month-old girl she was caring for in Manchester in 2014. A 2016 investigative report found that Shirley A. Powell, a licensed practical nurse, had failed to provide rescue breathing and CPR when the girl’s tracheotomy tube became dislodged. Under a consent order approved by the board Wednesday, Powell is permanently barred from caring for a patient with an artificial airway in a home health care setting or in any setting without the presence of other licensed nurses. The order does allow her to continue caring for one adult with an artificial airway who she has been caring for since 2008. Her employer will have to regularly report to DPH on the quality of Powell’s care of that patient.

State Disciplines Four Nurses

The Board of Examiners for Nursing on Wednesday disciplined four nurses, including three for their abuse of alcohol or drugs. The board suspended the registered nursing license of Lori Riley of Sharon after finding that she posed a clear and immediate danger to the public. Records show that in 2015, while working for All About You Homecare in Torrington, she took Percocet meant for a patient, replaced it with Tylenol and falsified the patient’s medical record. From 2014 to 2016, Riley abused Percocet, Oxycodone and Vicodin, records show. This past January, she signed a plan to enter a confidential rehabilitation program, but records show she failed to comply with the program or begin outpatient treatment for substance abuse.

Nursing Board Recommends Disciplining Nurse Following Baby’s Death

The state Board of Examiners for Nursing has recommended disciplining an East Hartford nurse for her actions when a 13-month-old girl she was caring for in Manchester stopped breathing and died in 2014. A June 14 investigative report concluded that licensed practical nurse Shirley A. Powell failed to provide rescue breathing and CPR when the girl’s tracheotomy tube became dislodged. The report, by Helen M. Centeno, a nurse consultant for the state Department of Public Health, also found that Powell failed to safeguard the girl by not having a direct view of her in the playpen in the child’s home on the day of the death, Aug. 15, 2014. Manchester police concluded that Powell left the girl out of her line of sight for 3 to 15 minutes and during that time, the tube became dislodged, the report said.

Nursing Board Disciplines 13 Nurses

The Board of Examiners for Nursing has recently disciplined 13 nurses, and in nearly all of the cases, the nurses were abusing drugs or alcohol that affected their ability to practice. After a hearing this week, the board reinstated the license of Todd Stockheimer, a registered nurse who had been working for the Bristol-Myers Squibb drug company in Wallingford before being convicted of drug possession. The board also placed his license on probation for four years. State records show that Stockheimer had abused opioid painkillers after having back surgery in 2007 and that he received many of his prescriptions from a co-worker, Dr. Robert Hindes. In an unusual twist, Stockheimer sued Hindes for negligence, blaming his drug dependency on the doctor, and won a $3.5 million judgment, the Connecticut Law Tribune reported.