What Ever Happend to the Nurse Who Abused Babies on the Nicu at Unity Point Health Meriter
A suspended UnityPoint Wellness-Meriter nurse was charged Thursday with abusing 9 infants in his care at the hospital from March 2017 until Feb.
A criminal complaint filed in Dane Canton Circuit Courtroom charged Christopher M. Kaphaem, 43, with 19 felonies. They include seven counts of child corruption, seven counts of patient abuse causing great bodily impairment, two counts of kid neglect causing actual harm, two counts of patient neglect causing bodily damage and 1 count of child corruption causing great bodily harm.
Most of the babies — eight of them born prematurely, as early equally at 27 weeks — had bruising or broken bones, with one sustaining a skull fracture, co-ordinate to the complaint. A kid abuse proficient said the injuries indicate child abuse.
2 babies had tissue impairment from 4 fluid leaking into their skin, considered "consistent with medical fail."
A suspended UnityPoint Health-Meriter nurse was charged Thursday with abusing nine infants in his care at the hospital from March 2017 until February.
A criminal complaint filed in Dane County Circuit Court charged Christopher M. Kaphaem, 43, with 19 felonies. They include seven counts of child corruption, vii counts of patient corruption causing dandy bodily damage, two counts of child fail causing bodily harm, ii counts of patient fail causing actual damage and one count of kid abuse causing great bodily harm.
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The complaint offers no explanation for why Kaphaem would intentionally impairment infants. But the begetter of 1 infant told investigators he had a "negative interaction" with Kaphaem after the father told the nurse his daughter's bed was wet. The mother of another baby said Kaphaem "had made statements" to her husband near her son beingness fussy and crying.
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Other nurses at Meriter said Kaphaem ignored patient alarms, airtight the door when conducting care exams and did exams in dim light. One said he told her he was happy to work with infants "considering he would not take to deal with the patients talking back to him."
Kaphaem was suspended past Meriter on February. viii subsequently working there for more than 14 years, and had his license suspended in March. He appeared in court Thursday with his lawyer, Jonas Bednarek, and was released on a signature bond.
He will be back in court on Oct. 15. Kaphaem was ordered to have no contact with the infants, their families or with Meriter, unless he needs to be at the hospital to be treated for a medical problem.
Kaphaem sold his house on Madison's Far West Side in Apr, according to city records. The criminal complaint lists his accost as a postal service office box in Middleton.
Meriter spokeswoman Jessika Kasten said the infirmary has installed video monitoring in NICU patient rooms, updated procedures for reporting of corruption and improved work flows to ameliorate monitor patient trends.
"Nosotros accept supported the legal process throughout this investigation," Kasten said in a statement. "In that location is no dubiousness that as an organization, we all remain devastated by what happened."
The infirmary received an "immediate jeopardy" citation in March after a federal inspection found it didn't respond appropriately when an babe was discovered hobbling in April 2017. That and other violations could take led the government to cancel Meriter'due south Medicare contracts, but an inspection in June establish the hospital to be in compliance with Medicare rules.
Gina Dennick-Champion, CEO of the Wisconsin Nurses Association, said she believes this is the first case of a nurse in the state being charged with abusing babies.
"I'm sure there'due south not a nurse that has heard about this who isn't going to experience badly for those families and shocked that a professional person nurse would be capable of doing that," Dennick-Champion said.
Probe started Feb. 9
Madison police were called to Meriter on February. nine to investigate two possible child abuse cases involving infants who had been cared for by Kaphaem in Meriter's 42-bed newborn intensive care unit, or NICU.
The babies had similar hand and arm injuries. Dr. Barbara Knox, a kid abuse expert at UW-Madison, said it was "very unlikely" that the injuries were caused by more than 1 person, and she suspected a Meriter staff fellow member.
Police learned that another infant who had been in the unit months earlier also had injuries that were similar to those seen on the other infants.
Some other potential abuse case was identified later on reviewing patient records, leading to a review of all of the infants that Kaphaem had cared for during his time in the NICU, where he had been permanently assigned since Oct 2016.
The extensive review, by Knox, led to the discovery of other infants who had sustained suspected abuse injuries.
Dr. Nancy Harper, a kid abuse expert at the University of Minnesota, also reviewed the medical records and determined that most of the injuries were "clinically diagnostic of child concrete corruption or inflicted injury."
Kaphaem cared for all ix babies, on the nighttime shift, the complaint said. For the starting time four babies whose cases were reviewed, he was the only infirmary employee who had any contact with them within 24 hours earlier their injuries were discovered, a Meriter administrator said.
Four other employees could have come into contact with the babies up to 48 hours before their injuries were recognized. But those workers told investigators they didn't have any contact.
The nine babies — four boys and four girls, with the gender of one undisclosed — were born between March 2017 and January.
Source: https://madison.com/wsj/news/local/courts/meriter-nurse-charged-with-abuse-of-intensive-care-infants/article_54e52741-f93b-5f73-8175-c2480a25f8f8.html
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