Nurse Trades Grandma’s Diabetic Insulin for ‘Prayers’ and Dietary supplements, Resulting in Her Demise: DA

“I argued for six years in jail,” Assistant District Lawyer Sidney Brubacher advised Legislation&Crime on Thursday, someday after a a lot lighter sentence for Kandise L. Sheahen, 38, was handed down.

“I laid out the seriousness of the offense, how she knew she was doing one thing incorrect and tried to cowl it up,” Brubacher mentioned, “how she was a nurse who was fired for not getting vaccinated and continued treating sufferers with out having the authority to.”

“The decide simply ignored me fully,” the ADA lamented. “Mentioned she thought she wasn’t a hazard to the general public.”

In Might, after about two hours of deliberation, Sheahen was discovered responsible of negligently subjecting a person in danger to abuse, inflicting dying, per courtroom data. She was sentenced this week to 9 months within the Marathon County Jail and 6 years of probation, per the Wausau Pilot & Assessment.

On the time of her dying, Sheahen’s grandmother, who has not been recognized, measured a blood glucose degree increased than 600, based on prosecutors. Within the days main as much as her dying, data confirmed her glucose ranges between 300 and 500, which could be dangerously excessive when unmanaged.

In response to the Cleveland Clinic, a wholesome blood glucose for somebody with out diabetes is round 70 to 99, whereas for in any other case wholesome diabetics can vary barely extra (50 to 140). Glucose ranges over 600 typically result in diabetic coma and/or dying.

As a part of the proof used to safe a responsible conviction, Brubacher and his group combed Sheahen’s social media accounts, the place she decried medicines and spoke of the facility of “prayer” as an alternative.

“My purpose in doing that is really to be the arms and toes of Jesus,” she mentioned in a single video, per police documentation. “I really wish to assist individuals. And I need them to get off all of the crap that the healthcare system places them on.”

She went on to speak particularly about being the caregiver for her grandmother. “She was on 18 completely different capsules. She was on 70 some models of the long-acting insulin twice a day, and like 30 or 40 of the short-acting,” she defined within the video. “And as time has went on and the extra information I’ve gained and the extra power I’ve gotten from God, I’ve realized that maintain on, like let’s, we do not want this a lot. That is ridiculous.”

In one other video, she touted the modifications she’d made to her grandmother’s drugs routine, sharing that she had decreased her insulin and brought her off of Tylenol fully. In response to Brubacher, Sheahen typically interacted with and referred to as out her followers, as effectively, for not following her “prayer”-driven methodology.

“Belief Jesus, say your prayers, and take your nutritional vitamins,” she mentioned. To 1 consumer with a diabetic partner, Sheahen urged her to “get [him] off his f–king insulin earlier than he will get sick.”

“She clearly and repeatedly mentioned, ‘I do not consider in insulin, I feel the medical apply is letting individuals down,'” Brubacher advised Legislation&Crime. “So yeah, she’s a risk to the general public.”

Sheahen’s grandmother had been on diabetic remedy for 3 many years earlier than Sheahen made the choice to begin modifying her therapy plan. In lieu of the mandatory insulin she took every day, Sheahen gave her grandmother unspecified dietary supplements she was additionally promoting on-line.

Police responded to Sheahen’s residence on January 8, 2022, the place they encountered her grandmother dying. Regardless of her dangerously excessive blood glucose ranges, Sheahen advised first responders she didn’t need her grandmother taken to a hospital. She additionally refused to permit them to take her vitals.

An post-mortem carried out after her dying confirmed that the grandmother died from diabetic ketoacidosis, which is what can occur when a diabetic’s physique doesn’t have sufficient insulin and produces excessive ranges of ketones by breaking down fats for power, creating acidic blood.

Extra complicating components embody a Covid an infection and cardiac issues. The Pilot & Assessment additionally reviews the girl had a catheter and IV in place on the time of her dying, however there was no proof of a medical order for both system.

Brubacher additionally mentioned that he believes “she would have gotten away with it,” as she tried to have her grandmother cremated “inside 24 hours” of her dying. She was stopped by certainly one of her extra skeptical members of the family, who felt “one thing was not proper” with that call. That member of the family referred to as the police and requested them to look into her dying.

Calling Sheahen’s conduct “predatory,” Brubacher advised Legislation&Crime that it has been a controversial case, with members of Sheahen’s family cut up on whether or not she dealt with her grandmother’s therapy correctly — some suppose she did — or not — some suppose she has “issues.” The grandmother herself, per the Pilot & Assessment, purportedly advised members of the family she feared for her security at residence.

“Plenty of the household who’re in help of her gave statements for her [at her sentencing hearing],” he advised the outlet. “After which there are different members of the family who suppose it is only a travesty and joke. They thought 9 months in jail and probation was a slap of their face.”