A Broward nurse was charged with abusing an elderly mental patient. Here’s what’s next
What’s described in an arrest report as a “violent shove” of a “geriatric patient” in a mental health facility could bring a triple shot of consequences — job, license, freedom — down on a Hollywood registered nurse.
Earlier this month, the state surgeon general slapped an emergency suspension order on the nursing license that Pedro Garcia has held since July 31, 2003. Garcia already had been fired by South Florida State Hospital, the Pembroke Pines facility that says it serves “severely and persistently mentally ill adults who are involuntarily committed to the hospital when community treatment alternatives are no longer effective.”
Garcia had been working there three years, according to the arrest report, when a patient approached him in a hallway just after 5 a.m. April 1.
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Pembroke Pines police detective Christopher Abbey wrote in his report that “on video, the two appear to be speaking in a somewhat loud manner and Garcia and (the patient) appear to be yelling (there’s no sound). After a few seconds, the video shows Garcia violently shove (the patient) in his upper torso and he subsequently falls onto the hallway floor. (He) is helped up and is eventually removed from Garcia.”
Abbey said not only did the patient make no threatening moves toward Garcia, but he “had his arms down to his sides as he was pushed to the floor.”
The emergency suspension order said Garcia walked away without helping or checking on the patient.
Abbey wrote the facility’s risk manager said he “is considered a geriatric patient who is always very docile but speaks loudly with his hands,” but Garcia knew this.
Garcia took advantage of his right to remain silent when reached by Pembroke Pines police on April 4. He was arrested on May 30 on a charge of abuse of an elderly person, a third-degree felony, and was released the next day after posting $3,500 bond.
Garcia has pleaded not guilty.
This story was originally published August 14, 2024 at 5:00 AM.
