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SINGAPORE – Enraged by a nursing home resident who was throwing a tantrum, a nurse assaulted the 67-year-old man and hospitalized him for seven days.
After Flores Alvin Jay Vargas, 36, kicked and punched the resident in a wheelchair, he told another nurse not to reveal what he had done.
On Wednesday (December 23), the Filipino citizen was jailed for 16 weeks after he pleaded guilty to one count of battery.
He no longer works at the Home for All Saints in Jurong East.
Deputy Prosecutor Niranjan Ranjakunalan told the court that the incident occurred around 6 p.m. on May 25, 2019.
The resident, who was left with traumatic brain injuries after a car accident in 2017, had requested a knife to cut an apple.
He threw a tantrum when his application was rejected, DPP Niranjan said.
The resident then repeatedly pressed the bell by his bed, and Vargas walked up to him to explain why staff couldn’t hand him a knife.
However, the resident continued to press different ringtones, pulling and ripping Vargas’s shirt as the nurse tried to remove a handbell, the DPP added.
“The defendant got angry and hit the victim, who was still in his bed, on his chest a couple of times. The defendant then kicked the victim’s bed frame and kicked the victim once on the right side of his body, “DPP said. Niranjan.
Other staff from the nursing home who were present told Vargas to stop. He later sent a message to one of the witnesses, asking him to “tell anyone who asks what happened that he did not hit the victim,” the DPP added.
The truth was discovered two days later when the victim told her visiting brother about the incident.
The doctor on duty at the nursing home saw that there was some tenderness in the walls of the victim’s chest, and the victim was sent to Ng Teng Fong General Hospital, where she was kept for seven days.
Doctors found that there was “suspected crack fractures” in the victim’s ribs, although they could not confirm whether the fractures had occurred. The victim was transferred to Jurong Community Hospital on June 2 of that year for rehabilitation.
In mitigation, Vargas’ defense attorney said the nurse was deeply sorry.
Vargas, the sole breadwinner in his family, told the court that he has since been fired from the nursing home.
District Judge Jasvender Kaur agreed with the prosecution’s claim that Vargas should receive at least four months in jail.
He said patients must be safe and cared for by nurses who keep their interests “front and center.”
This was not a case in which there was a single blow that could be attributed to a momentary loss of anger, he added, noting that Vargas had struck the victim several times and kicked him in anger.
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