(Photo courtesy of the Iowa Board of Nursing)
The Iowa Board of Nursing has revoked the license of a nurse who was allegedly captured on video physically mistreating a profoundly disabled child.
According to the board, a licensed practical nurse named Marie Edly Chery was working for a company called Family First Home Care in 2023 and was providing in-home nursing services to a 9-year-old boy. The child was diagnosed with several medical conditions, including cerebral palsy, epilepsy, respiratory failure, and chronic kidney disease. The child used a tracheal tube and ventilator to breathe, was nonverbal, and was fed through a tube.
Board records indicate the child’s bedroom was equipped with two video cameras. On July 17, 2023, and Aug. 23, 2023, the cameras allegedly captured Chery repeatedly handling the boy in what the board calls “a very aggressive manner.”
According to the board, Chery does not appear to speak or interact with the boy in the videos, but can be seen forcefully repositioning him several times without properly supporting his body, often yanking him by his limbs or by his head.
The video allegedly shows several instances in which the child visibly reacts to Chery’s treatment of him through a change in his facial expression. On at least one occasion, Chery’s repositioning of the boy was “so aggressive,” the board says, that the child hit his head against an object. At another point, Chery can allegedly be seen physically striking the boy on his leg with her fist.
The board alleges the video also shows Chery using poor infection control practices by failing to change gloves between bathing the child, applying ointment, providing oral care and trach care. According to the board, Family First Home Care fired Chery after seeing the videos, and complaints were filed at some point with the boards of nursing in both Texas and Iowa.
Board records show Chery denied any wrongdoing and told the Iowa Board of Nursing she physically handled the boy as she was trained to do. She also alleged the child’s family was often unreasonable in their directives and she testified at length regarding the disagreements and personal conflicts she had with the family, whom she accused of manipulating the video recordings.
The board charged Chery with unethical conduct, and in deciding to revoke her license, the board stated the video shows Chery “repeatedly handled (the child), a particularly vulnerable patient, in a very forceful, aggressive manner over a short time period.”
The board added that Chery’s “explanation of her actions were nonsensical and not supported by the video evidence.”
The available board records give no indication as to where the child lived, or where Chery was practicing in 2023. There are different home care companies named “Family First” in both eastern and western Iowa, as well as in Texas, where the nursing board granted Chery a temporary license to practice in February 2024, several months after the alleged mistreatment took place.
On Oct. 10, 2024, the Texas board filed disciplinary charges against Chery, but those charges have not been publicly disclosed and the case there has yet to be resolved. Iowa Board of Nursing records indicate Chery now lives in Stafford, Texas.