Nurse arrested in slashing of nursing home feeding tubes

<p>A 53-year-old nurse was arrested in Georgia on Tuesday in connection with the slashing of six elderly patients' feeding tubes at a city-owned nursing home.</p><p>Joan Barnes was arrested by police in Toccoa, Ga., at the home of her mother-in-law, Philadelphia Police Chief Inspector Joseph Fox said. Police said she will be transported to Philadelphia in the next few days.</p><p>Barnes was working one of her final shifts as a licensed practical nurse at the Philadelphia Nursing Home when the patients' tubes were cut on Sept. 22, a spokesman for the home said.</p><p>A former resident of Toccoa, Barnes had twice been temporarily employed at the home through a national health-care staffing agency, but administrators had recently hired someone else to fill the position permanently.</p><p>Police obtained a warrant for Barnes' arrest earlier this week. She had not worked since the day the snipped tubes were discovered.</p><p>The alleged act of sabotage did no harm to the victims, who ranged in age from their 40s to their 80s and all had medical conditions that limited their cognitive abilities, health officials said. The leaks were discovered almost immediately, and even very frail people who need feeding tubes to live can go several days without them, officials said.</p><p>Barnes faces charges of assault and reckless endangerment, said Cathie Abookire, a spokeswoman for District Attorney Lynne Abraham. She declined to say what prompted investigators to suspect the nurse.</p><p>All six alleged victims suffered from cognitive impairments that will likely make them unable to identify whoever was responsible for the crime, police said.</p><p>Barnes has been licensed as a practical nurse in Pennsylvania since July of 2003. Her Georgia nursing license dates back to 1984. Neither state has any record of disciplinary action against her.</p><p>A spokesman for Philadelphia Nursing Home, Kevin Feeley, said Barnes passed a rigorous background check when she began working there in July 2003.</p><p>"There was nothing about her that would single her out as someone who couldn't do the job," Feeley said.</p><p>MedStaff, the agency that employed Barnes and placed her at the home, said it also checked her work history and educational credentials before hiring her, and found no evidence of past wrongdoing. Howard Goldman, a spokesman for MedStaff's parent company, Cross Country Healthcare, said he was unaware of any recent complaints about Barnes' performance.</p><p>It was not immediately clear whether Barnes had an attorney.</p>

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