Nurse's aide found guilty of 4 counts of patient abuse
A state court jury has found a former employee of a Honolulu nursing care facility guilty of abuse of elderly patients.
Maria Cobar, 39, a certified nurse's aide, will be sentenced Nov. 6 on four counts of endangering the welfare of an incompetent person. Each misdemeanor count could bring one year of jail and a $2,000 fine.
Cobar was fired from the Palolo Chinese Home in December 2004 after other employees reported her actions, according to an announcement from state Attorney General Mark Bennett.
The state attorney general's Medicaid Fraud Control Unit brought charges that included:
» She injured the thumb of an 82-year-old man.
» She threw the man from his wheelchair to his bed.
» She stood by without intervening when the man repeatedly banged his head against a shower wall.
» She let an incontinent patient, 86, stay in her soiled clothing for the next duty shift to change.
Cobar also faces exclusion from employment at all Medicaid- and Medicare-affiliated facilities, Bennett said in the announcement.
