Wisconsin nurse accused of amputating a patient’s foot, pleads no contest

Mary K. Brown, a nurse in Wisconsin, who cut off the foot of a patient without his permission, pleaded no contest to negligently abusing a patient.

As part of the no contest plea, Brown had two other charges, intentionally causing great bodily harm and mayhem, and physically abusing an elder person, dismissed.

Brown, 40, will pay $443 in court costs and agree with any discipline imposed on her nursing license by the Board of Nursing. She will not face any jail time.

Back in 2022, Brown was arrested after authorities day she cut the foot off of a patient under her care at a nursing home.

The man had been placed in the nursing home after his foot began to suffer from necrosis due to dying tissue in his foot from prolonged frostbite.

The amputation was discovered when a Pierce County, Wis. medical examiner flagged an autopsy to authorities of the man after he found a foot had been removed from the body.

RELATED: Wisconsin nurse accused of amputating patient’s foot without permission

Some of Brown’s coworkers told investigators they had witnessed the man’s foot still attached to his body by several inches of tissue on the morning of May 27, 2022, then that night, Brown fully amputated his foot.

It was later discovered that Brown had neither received a doctor’s order to remove the foot nor obtained permission from the patient.

It is unknown if the amputation caused the man pain or not, as nurses interviewed by authorities produced varying accounts of the incident.

Court documents state a nursing home administrator told investigators he instructed Brown not to amputate the man’s foot, but said he believed a doctor would have ordered the procedure. The same administrator added that it seemed Brown had done it for the patient’s comfort and dignity.
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