Nurse 'amputated patient's foot without consent and wanted to display it in family shop'

A nurse accused of amputating the foot of a patient without his consent allegedly planned to display it in her family's taxidermy shop.

Mary K. Brown, 40, will not face any jail time after pleading no contest to abusing the 62-year-old man, who was in her care at a nursing home in May 2022. In US law, a no contest plea means the defendant neither disputes nor admits to the criminal charges.

The patient, who had initially been taken to the centre because of "severe frostbite" on both of his feet, died days after his foot was removed. However, according to a criminal complaint, no definitive link was made between his death and the amputation.

READ MORE: Mum 'stabs baby to death' in front of family as cops 'haunted' by what they saw

The nurse was initially charged with intentionally causing great bodily harm and physically abusing an elderly person, but those charges were later dismissed as part of her no-contest plea, according to KSTP. The publication reported that the amputation was discovered when a medical examiner in Pierce County, Wisconsin, flagged an autopsy to authorities.

Some of Brown's co-workers said they had seen the man's foot still attached to his body by several inches of tissue on the morning of May 27, 2022, but alleged that Brown amputated it later that night. It later emerged that the nurse hadn't received a doctor's order, or the patient's consent, to remove the foot.

According to a criminal complaint obtained by NBC, Brown allegedly used scissors to cut a tendon, which amputated the man's foot, which was then put in a bag in a freezer so it could be sent with him when he died. NBC reported that a nurse said she was holding the victim's hand when Brown cut the tendon.

Another worker at the centre claimed that when the man's foot was cut off, he "felt everything and it hurt very bad". One more unnamed nurse claimed that during the amputation, Brown talked about her family's taxidermy shop and said "she was going to preserve the foot and put it on display with a sign that said 'Wear your boots kids'," according to the charges.

The man's sister said she was "extremely upset" when she learned of the unauthorised procedure, the New York Post reported. "When I found out, I pretty much lost it," the woman said, adding that her late brother was a "phenomenal artist" who "had a heart of gold".

Brown escaped a jail sentence and was instead ordered to pay $443 (£330) in court fees. However, she might still face disciplinary proceedings from the Wisconsin Board of Nursing and is no longer allowed to work as a caregiver in the US state.