Cerebral Palsy Patient Starves, Negligent Ohio Nurse Serves 10 Years in Prison

Miranda S. Miller

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An Ohio nurse was sentenced to 10 years in prison last month, according to the Seattle Times. Mollie Parsons’ negligence led to the malnutrition death of a 14-year-old cerebral palsy patient. Makayla Norman, who starved to death per the coroner, weighed 28 pounds when she died.

The girl’s mother is serving nine years in prison, and two supervising nurses were sentenced to up to five years’ probation.

Parsons “had a duty, a responsibility, an oath that she took as a nurse to care for people,” Montgomery County Prosecutor Mat Heck reportedly said. “This is one of the most dependent victims she would ever come in contact with in her entire life, and she simply failed to do anything.”

The nurse could have gotten away with a three-year slap on the wrist; however, Heck surmised that Parsons pled guilty to keep details of the teen’s countless bedsores and deplorable living conditions out of the press.