A Baxter County woman, 58-year-old Cynthia Sakian of Cotter, has been charged with misdemeanor first degree assault following the death of her nursing home patient after she allegedly administered the wrong medications to her.
According to the arrest affidavit made available online Wednesday morning through the Administrative Office of the Courts, the charge follows an incident in January at the Gassville Nursing and Rehabilitation Center.
In written and verbal statements to the nursing home administration, Sakian said she had prepared insulin and Lantus for her patient before being called down the hall. When she returned, she gathered the morphine and Percocet prescribed for another patient, setting them next to the insulin and Lantus syringes. After stopping for a restroom visit, she returned to the patient’s room and mistakenly administered the morphine and Percocet.
Sakian said she failed to label the cups of medications or compare them to the medication administration record, as required by policy and nursing practice, prior to administering them.
The patient receiving the wrong medications was transported to Baxter Regional Medical Center, where she died two days later after complications.
An autopsy performed at the Arkansas State Crime Laboratory indicates the cause of death as complications of narcotic intoxication and the manner of death as accidental.
The case is being prosecuted by the Arkansas Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit.
Sakian’s bond was set at $1,000.
Further review of Sakian’s personnel record reveals six other incidents of medicine errors dating back to 2015. The affidavit does not specify where Sakian was employed during the other incidents.
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