A nurse at the Avenue at Warrensville Care and Rehabilitation Center has been charged in connection with the death of an 84-year-old patient, Alvera Mary Meuti, who died of hypothermia after going missing for over ten hours. Amber Henderson, 31, is facing a third-degree felony charge of involuntary manslaughter and two misdemeanors for tampering with records and gross patient neglect, as reported by WKYC.
Meuti was last seen alive on December 23 at about 8:40 p.m. and was found unresponsive early the following day by the facility staff. Following the grim discovery, Henderson was arraigned yesterday, and her bond was set at $2,500. The case is now set for a grand jury review in Cuyahoga County, according to Cleveland19. Henderson, who reportedly began calling Meuti's brother after failing to locate the patient, admitted to being a new nurse and unsure how to proceed when Meuti was discovered missing.
Warrensville Heights police noted in their report that the patient could have been exposed to the cold for the entirety of the night. Meuti's cause of death was determined to be environmental exposure with hypothermia by the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner, detailed by News 5 Cleveland. The Avenue at Warrensville staff is reportedly trained to deal with such missing person incidents, explicitly instructing nurses to advise management and notify the police and the patient's family immediately.
Henderson's actions have been scrutinized for the delayed report of the missing patient and the tampering with records, which involved falsely documenting the administration of a medication cream to Meuti after her disappearance, cited by the Bedford Municipal Court complaint.
