Another Psycho Nurse: Mary K. Brown Accused Of Amputating Man’s Foot For Her Family’s Taxidermy Shop

Nurse accused of amputating man’s foot for her family’s taxidermy shop 

As the registered nurse amputated her patient’s right foot on the afternoon of May 27, she told colleagues that her family owned a taxidermy shop, the affidavit alleges. Her co-workers recalled her saying that she planned to take the 62-year-old patient’s foot from the nursing home in Spring Valley, Wis., and display it at the shop.According to them, she said she wanted to put a sign next to it: “wear your boots kids.” Brown, 38, was charged Thursday with two felonies: mayhem and intentionally causing great bodily harm to an elderly person. The Pierce County district attorney has enhanced the possible punishment for each charge by up to six years because she’s accused of victimizing someone 60 or older. Brown, who declined to talk about the accusations against her when reached by The Washington Post on Monday afternoon, faces up to 92 years in prison if convicted. Court records do not list an attorney for Brown. Kevin Larson, administrator and chief executive of the Spring Valley Health and Rehabilitation Center, said in a statement that he and his staff “will continue to fully cooperate with the investigation into this matter.” “The person identified is not employed with our community,” Larson added. The 62-year-old man wound up at Spring Valley in March, Pierce County District Attorney Halle Hatch wrote in the affidavit. He had fallen at his home and, when the heat went out, suffered severe frostbite on both of his feet. Several nursing home employees described his feet as “black like a mummy.” The man’s ill health extended beyond the frostbite. In the weeks leading up to May 27, hospice nurses cycled in and out of his room, expecting that his death was imminent, the affidavit states. 

A few days before the amputation, the man rolled out of bed, Tracy Reitz, the nursing home’s director of nursing and clinical services, told Pierce County sheriff’s investigator Pete Koch. His already severely damaged right foot was further mangled in the fall, requiring Reitz to wrap it. The man, who was “slightly coherent,” stared at his foot and apologized for the smell it was producing, Reitz told Koch. Around this time, Brown asked Larson, the nursing home’s administrator, for permission to amputate, the affidavit states. Larson said no, telling her to merely stabilize the foot instead because he thought the man would die within hours. Defying those expectations, the patient held on for several days, Larson said, prompting Brown to amputate the foot because she “believed it was the right thing to do,” according to the affidavit. Around 4:30 on the afternoon of May 27, Brown corralled and deputized her co-workers, identified only as Nurse 3 and Nurse 4 in court documents, to help her change the man’s bandages, the affidavit states. When they went in, Nurse 3 stabilized his foot while Nurse 4 held his hand. Both nurses told investigators that, as Brown changed the bandages, she expressed disbelief that no one had amputated his foot, according to the affidavit. Brown then did it herself, cutting the foot with gauze scissors, Nurse 3 told investigators. The man didn’t seem to be in any pain, the nurse said. Nurse 4 had a different perspective. She said she was busy holding the man’s hand when, all of sudden, his foot had been cut off, the affidavit states. Only after realizing what had happened was she able to figure out why the man’s grip was “extremely tight and he was moaning a little bit.” Two days after the amputation, the man told another unnamed nurse that he had “felt everything and it hurt very bad,” according to the affidavit. After amputating, Brown talked about taxidermy and mentioned the “wear your boots” sign, both nurses told the sheriff’s investigator. Nurse 3 said Brown mentioned taking the foot home to epoxy it, among other things, the affidavit states. “She thought it was weird that Brown wanted to bronze the foot,” Koch wrote in the report. Source