Nurse lied 3 times about visiting VA patient who died at Texas hospital, feds say
A woman working as a nurse at the veterans’ hospital in Houston repeatedly lied about checking on her patient in the hours leading up to his death, according to federal prosecutors.
The now-former nurse, Christiana Ogbonnaya, has been indicted on a charge of creating false government records, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas said in a May 12 news release.
Ogbonnaya, 54, of Richmond, was arrested May 12 and released from custody on a $50,000 unsecured bond, court records show. Richmond is a Houston suburb, about a 30-mile drive southwest from the city.
Her federal public defender didn’t immediately return McClatchy News’ request for comment May 13.
Ogbonnaya, who had been a licensed registered nurse since 2010, began working at the Houston Veterans Affairs Medical Center in 2019, according to court documents.
On July 26 to July 27, 2024, she was caring for three patients, including the man who was found dead at about 4:39 a.m. the morning of July 27, her indictment says.
He was only identified as “J.D.” in court filings.
Ogbonnaya is accused of writing false reports in the VA hospital’s digital patient record system, saying she visited the man in his room at 11:10 the evening of July 26, at 1:15 a.m. on July 27 and a third time – at 2:55 a.m. on July 27.
But the last time prosecutors said she saw the man was at 8:45 p.m on July 26, shortly after her shift began.
After about eight hours, the next time she saw him was when he was unresponsive in his room, according to the indictment.
The man, whose cause of death wasn’t specified by prosecutors, was found next to his hospital bed with a charging cable around his neck, the indictment says.
Other medical staff members determined he was dead, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
If Ogbonnaya is convicted, she’d face up to five years in prison and could be fined up to $250,000, prosecutors said.
.jpg)