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Nurse struck off after dragging vulnerable patient across the floor

Mamello Herring was struck off the NMC register after causing ‘unwarranted harm’ to a care home resident with dementia in an incident recorded by hidden camera

Mamello Herring was struck off the NMC register after causing ‘unwarranted harm’ to a care home resident with dementia in an incident recorded by hidden camera

Picture from CCTV footage of the manhandling of a patient by struck-off nurse Mamello Herring
The incident was recorded on a hidden camera installed by the patient’s family

A nurse who dragged a woman with partial blindness and dementia across a room with their underwear around their ankles has been struck off by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC).

Reprehensible action was recorded on CCTV

Mental health nurse Mamello Herring said she was ‘under stress and tired due to not sleeping well’ and was also taking medication for flu symptoms which ‘might have affected my decision making’.

In a written statement to an NMC fitness to practise (FtP) panel Ms Herring reflected that her conduct was ‘entirely unacceptable and reprehensible’ after she was seen dragging the woman from the toilet onto a bed, after the patient’s concerned family installed a hidden camera at her West Yorkshire care home.

CCTV images showed the vulnerable woman calling out in distress as she was pulled across the room and ‘manhandled’ onto the bed. Her son found her lying in urine-soaked clothes the next morning.

NMC decision follows 2019 court finding of wilful neglect

Ms Herring was convicted of ill treatment by a care worker and wilful neglect of an individual – referred to as Resident A in the NMC FtP papers – at Bradford Crown Court in August 2019. She was struck off by an NMC panel following a hearing on 26 January.

At her court case the judge concluded the treatment of the care home resident was not deliberate but was instead ‘grossly negligent behaviour brought about by a lazy, sloppy failure’ to follow proper caring procedures.

Ms Herring recalled in her written statement to the NMC that the ward was ‘very busy with lots of demands being placed on me and the staff.’

‘I had other residents to deal with and was trying to balance the safety of Resident A with the need to ensure the safety of other residents,’ she said.

Striking off was ‘only suitable sanction’

The FtP panel found that the nurse’s actions were a gross failure and breach of care and had ‘caused direct distress and unwarranted harm to Resident A, a vulnerable woman who was treated by Ms Herring without respect and with a disregard for her dignity’.

Despite undergoing several training courses since the incident, the NMC panel decided a striking off order was the only suitable sanction. Ms Herring has 28 days to appeal the decision.


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