Home health aide charged following overdose death at care facility
May 20—A Rochester home health aide has been charged with a felony after a person in hospice care died as a result of the toxic effects of morphine in October 2020.
Josephina Amaka Okeke, 56, is charged in Olmsted County District Court with felony great bodily harm-caused by distribution of a schedule 1 or 2 drug and gross misdemeanor unlawful practice of medicine.
The criminal complaint was filed on May 17, and Okeke has been summoned to make her first appearance on the charges on June 22 in front of Judge Debra Jacobson.
The criminal complaint alleges that Okeke gave the person morphine once every hour for five hours beginning at 11 p.m. Sept. 30, 2020. The person was supposed to receive 0.5 mg of morphine every three hours.
"The medical examiner opined that Victim died as a result of the toxic effects of morphine," the criminal complaint states.
The person, who is not identified, was being attended to in hospice at an unnamed care facility in the city, and had been a resident at that facility since 2017.
When interviewed by police, Okeke told the officer "that she was being forced to administer medications and knew she wasn't supposed to," the criminal complaint reads. The complaint states that home health aides do receive training on administering medications and are assessed on their competencies but Okeke did not pass her competency test to be able to administer medications.
Okeke is alleged to have changed the narcotics log sheet once she realized what had happened.
