POLK COUNTY, Fla. — A home healthcare worker was arrested for allegedly failing to call 9-1-1 or provide health care to an 86-year-old man in her care.
The Polk County Sheriff's Office said Beatrice Taylor, 25, of Dundee, was hired as a home health care worker by the man and his wife through Assisting Hands Home Health Care. Taylor was scheduled to work 12-hour shifts watching the couple.
Deputies said on August 15, Taylor began her shift at 9 p.m. and immediately fell asleep. Taylor allegedly woke up when she heard a "thump" coming from the victim's bedroom.
Taylor went to the couple's bedroom and allegedly found the man lying on his right side on the floor with his head wedged in between the nightstand and the bed. Deputies said Taylor told them she tried to help the man, but he told her not to touch him, so she left him on the floor and did not call anyone, including 9-1-1.
The Polk County Sheriff's Office said Taylor fell back asleep again and then woke up at 4:53 a.m. when she called her parents. Taylor allegedly checked on the victim and found him still on the floor, and now he was unresponsive.
Her parents told her to call 9-1-1 and she did around 5:37 a.m.
The man died from what the medical examiner said was positional asphyxia with a contributory cause of pre-existing health conditions.
During an autopsy, his implanted pacemaker was found, and the data downloaded said the victim was still alive at 1 a.m. when he was first found on the floor. The medical examiner said if Taylor had called 9-1-1 when she first found the victim, he would not have died.
The Polk County Sheriff's Office said one of the paramedics who arrived at the scene after Taylor called 9-1-1 allegedly overheard Taylor say to someone on the phone, "He was old anyway so what does it matter?"
Taylor remains in the Polk County Jail on no bond.
A state report says hundreds of frail elderly nursing home residents were stacked side by side, head to toe in a small church with no working air conditioning or refrigerator during Hurricane Helene.
