An Iowa health care aide has been charged with abusing a bedridden woman in her care who ultimate died this summer her mattress caught fire this summer.
According to The Hawk Eye, Burlington Police charged 25-year-old Audrey Engler with intentional dependent adult abuse after investigating the woman’s death, which occurred on August 15, nearly a month after the mattress fire.
The complaint against Engler said the woman was hospitalized on July 21 after the fire and was ultimately placed in hospice care, where she died.
Police said they spoke with the woman’s case manager, who told them she had been living with Engler and paying the bills. The case manager reported finding her with soiled linens and “stuff all over the ground (so bad that) a person couldn’t find a place to sit or stand.” The woman had asked them to buy clothing items because “all her money was going to Engler,” and that Engler often didn’t give her prescribed pain medication.
The case manager also reported finding her with a full catheter, sitting in feces.
Police also spoke to the woman’s nurse and a bath aide, both of whom reported that she was often urine soaked and sitting in feces. The nurse also said she found some of her medications on the floor and that Engler had encouraged her to reduce her visits because she was “adequately” taking care of the woman.
Investigators interviewed Engler, who told them that the woman communicated her needs via text messages, but they found that Engler sometimes “wouldn’t respond for hours.” When they asked about the woman’s bed sores, Engler said he moved the bedridden woman “one time a day.”
She then told investigators that “she could have taken care of the dependent adult better and could have checked on her more and could have had more compassion for her,” the complaint said.
Engler was booked into the Des Moines County Jail on a $10,000 bond and is due in court again on December 29.
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[Featured image: Audrey Engler/Des Moines County Jail]
