A nurse in western Wisconsin has been charged with two felony counts of elder abuse for allegedly amputating a hospice patient's foot without a doctor's order or patient's consent. She then told colleagues she wanted to preserve and display the foot at her family's taxidermy shop, according to a criminal complaint filed last week in Pierce County.
Mary K. Brown, 38, of Durand, is scheduled to appear in Pierce County Circuit Court on Dec. 6.
Brown was working at Spring Valley Health and Rehab Center on May 27, when the incident occurred, according to the criminal complaint. The 40-bed facility in Spring Valley, a village of 1,400 people, is located near the Minnesota border in Pierce and St. Croix counties. While at the Spring Valley center, the victim was receiving separate care through hospice health workers from St. Croix County. Brown was not part of that care; she is not a hospice nurse.