Nurse jailed 12 weeks for punching face of dementia patient, 77, multiple times
When an elderly patient hit a male nurse on his chest, the nurse retaliated by punching him multiple times on the face.
Bernardo JR Perdido Ramos, a 36-year-old Filipino, was working at one of the Orange Valley nursing homes when he assaulted the 77-year-old patient, who suffers from severe dementia.
He was sentenced to 12 weeks’ jail on Wednesday (6 March) on one count of voluntarily causing hurt.
Trolley hit patient’s bed, sparking off incident
The court heard that on 21 November last year, at about 4.10pm, a nursing assistant, Dasanayaka Achchillage Saman Kumara, entered the patient’s room to distribute clothes. Ramos also entered shortly after to distribute bedsheets and pillow cases.
Ramos’ trolley accidentally hit the bed of the patient, who sat up on his bed and shouted, “Who disturb me?” (sic) Ramos then approached the patient and replied, “Why? Me! Why? Me!”
The patient then hit him once on the chest, and Ramos punched the elderly man four or five times on the face in retaliation, causing the patient to fall backwards onto his bed.
Kumara, who witnessed the incident, shouted loudly to Ramos, “Why? What happened? Why did you punch him?” However, Ramos continued to hit the patient a couple more times on the face before leaving the room.
When Kumara checked on the patient, he saw that the elderly man was covering his face. He asked the patient what had happened, but failed to elicit a response. He noted that the man’s left ear had a small bleeding cut, and his left eye was swollen and red.
Warned colleague not to tell on him
Kumara left the room intending to inform his supervisor, but Ramos looked threateningly at him and warned him not to tell on him. Eventually, Kumara found a chance to tell the supervisor of the incident.
About an hour after the incident, the victim was shown some male staff in order to identify his assailant. However, he could not identify his attacker due to his dementia.
The next day, the victim was medically examined and found to have mild puffiness on his left upper eyelid, as well as bleeding in his left eye. His injuries healed by 4 December.
A police report was lodged on 24 November.
Abused trust reposed in him as a nurse
Deputy Public Prosecutor Benjamin Samynathan sought a jail term of 12 weeks, stating that Ramos had abused the trust reposed in him as a nurse, and attacked a vulnerable victim who was both elderly and sick.
He said, “There was no need to resort to force in the circumstances. He should have apologised for knocking his trolley into the victim’s bed frame, instead of asking, ‘Why you accuse me?'”
Ramos’ lawyer Ong Pang Meng said his client was immediately fired from his job after the incident. He noted that his client, who has worked in Singapore for 12 years, would not be able to find another job here and would be sent back to the Philippines, and asked for a short custodial sentence.
In sentencing Ramos, District Judge Hamidah Ibrahim noted that a “severe breach of trust” had occurred. He said, “We are talking about a 77-year-old patient of the home who has dementia. Yes he may have hit (Ramos)… (Ramos) overreacted, and overreacted disproportionately.”
For voluntarily causing hurt, Bernardo could have been jailed up to two years and/or fined a maximum $5,000.
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