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Nurses indicted in death of teen at
Florida facility January 29,
2004 A Florida grand jury
indicted two nurses on manslaughter and murder charges, finding they
denied care to a dying teen at a state-run jail. CNN's Susan
Candiotti reports (January 29)
 MIAMI,
Florida (CNN) -- Singling out the actions of two nurses as
"outrageous," a Florida grand jury indicted two women on
manslaughter and third-degree murder charges, finding the two women
ignored calls from a dying teen for medical aid at a residential
detention facility.
At the same time, the grand jury
released a report stating they found "incompetence, ambivalence and
negligence" by the administration and staff of the detention center
and nurses employed by Miami Children's Hospital in connection with
the death of 17-year-old Omar Paisley.
Nurses Gaile Loperfido, left. and Dianne
Demeritte remained silent in court Wednesday.
Paisley died June 9 from a ruptured
appendix at Miami-Dade County Regional Juvenile Detention Center.
In a statement released late
Tuesday, Florida Department of Juvenile Justice Secretary William G.
''Bill'' Bankhead said his agency would cooperate with the grand
jury findings.
Bankhead also said his department
has undertaken an "internal investigation into administrative
issues" at the detention center.
The two nurses indicted -- Gaile
Tucker Loperfido and Dianne Marie Demeritte -- are contract
employees of Miami Children's Hospital, assigned to the Miami-Dade
County detention center.
"The conduct of two of the nurses
was so outrageous as to rise to the level of criminal negligence and
we have felt compelled to issue indictments for these acts," read
the 50-page grand jury report.
Loperfido and Demeritte turned
themselves in Wednesday before Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Robert Deehl.
According to the grand jury report,
Demeritte told at least two people she did not examine the teenager
"due to the fact she had a sick child at home" and "she didn't want
to catch his virus and take it home."
The grand jury cited repeated
instances of a slow response to Paisley's repeated requests for
help.
The grand jury report also
indicated both nurses added entries of alleged examinations of the
boy after his death. The report offered evidence disputing whether
the teenager was checked as many times as the nurses' post-death
reports show.
Report: Teenager's life 'ended in
agony'
Paisley died of a ruptured appendix
after what the grand jury called three days in agony. The grand jury
investigation documented the final three days of Paisley's life,
culminating with his death last summer from a ruptured appendix.
The report opens by saying the
teenager's final days "ended ... in agony, lying on a concrete bed"
and "despite his repeated requests for help, Omar was denied that
which many of us take for granted, appropriate and timely medical
care."
The report said it found "numerous"
people played a role in the teen's death, yet added the nurses'
actions and inactions stood out.
At one point, when Paisley was
apparently near death, he was made to sit in a chair outside his
cell while employees initially made efforts to transfer the teen
using the facility's own van.
"As he remained in the chair, brown
fluid flowed from his nose and mouth," according to the report.
While that was going on, the report
stated, a volunteer for a religious counseling group witnessed
Paisley "slumped over in the chair" outside his room.
"He immediately checked and noted
Omar had no pulse," the report said.
According to the grand jury, no one
responded with medical aid.
"Despite the fact that each
detention worker was trained in first-aid and cardiopulmonary
resuscitation, not one of them engaged in efforts to save Omar's
life," the report said.
The juvenile facility is Florida's
largest of its kind and at the time of Paisley's death was operating
at 135 percent over its capacity, the report stated.
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