Itasca nursing home worker gets probation in neglect death
A certified nursing assistant was sentenced Monday to probation and the six months of jail she's already served for neglecting an elderly patient who died and then lying to police about it.
Authorities said 24-year-old Heidi Leon of Bensenville turned off a door alarm at an Itasca nursing home and went back to watching television in February after an 89-year-old dementia patient wandered out of the building. The patient, Sarah "Sally" Wentworth, fell while she was outdoors in near subzero temperatures and wasn't found for hours.
The sentencing was part of a deal in which Leon agreed to plead guilty to two of the four charges she was facing. She could have received five years behind bars. She has been in jail since early March. Leon was expected to walk free Monday.
"I feel the sentence should be harsher," said Catherine Shain, one the elderly woman's three daughters. "One hundred and eighty days is in no way payment for what my mother went through."
Leon wept through a brief apology to Wentworth's family during Monday's hearing.
"I am so sorry for your loss," Leon said. "She will always be in my heart."
Wentworth's family had mixed reactions to the apology. Shain said the apology was "too late." But Peggy Kennedy, another of Wentworth's daughters, said "it was the first time anyone had apologized" to the family.
The daughters have filed a wrongful-death suit against Leon's former employer, The Arbor of Itasca nursing home.
"I think this is the time we hold The Arbor of Itasca responsible for their employees," Shain said. "We feel (Leon) was a scapegoat. There were several hours before the ambulance was called and we don't believe she was properly managed."
Detectives interviewed three other employees of the nursing home, but no additional charges were filed.
DuPage County State's Attorney Joseph Birkett said previously the other employees cooperated with the investigation and Leon had initially lied to them as well about the circumstances surrounding Wentworth's death. He didn't believe the other employees' actions resulted in "indictable behavior."
"The others got off," Kennedy said. "I don't believe (Leon) was the only one in charge that night and somebody should have been checking on her, especially since she was known to be lazy."
Investigators said Leon initially lied to them about seeing Wentworth in bed around 3 a.m. on Feb. 5. Instead they believe Wentworth tripped a door alarm shortly before 2 a.m. and made it about 85 feet in bare feet and a nightgown before slipping on ice and falling.
The woman injured her chin, right leg and ankle in the fall and tried crawling back to the doorway before succumbing to the cold and dying of hypothermia. She was 71 feet away from the door when her body was found several hours later, Assistant State's Attorney Mary Cronin said during the hearing.
"We are now left to endure the pain of knowing that mom's greatest fear, that of being cold and alone, has happened to her," Shain said. "My mother deserved to die with dignity, which she was robbed of."
Investigators said that instead of immediately calling for help, Leon attempted to cover up what had actually occurred. They were initially told the woman died in her bed, but they became suspicious because Wentworth was lying on a gurney, dressed in a hospital gown, covered with blankets and hooked up to an oxygen machine.