EDITOR’S NOTE: The Dominion Post reporter David Beard is not related to Kylah Beard, the defendant in this case.
dbeard@domininopost.com
KINGWOOD – The case of a former Hopemont Hospital certified nursing assistant charged in the scalding death of a resident will head to Preston County Circuit Court.
Magistrate Patricia Grimm found probable cause to put Kylah Beard’s case before a grand jury following a Thursday preliminary hearing that ran about 90 minutes. She is charged with malicious neglect of an incapacitated adult causing death
Hopemont resident Larry Hedrick was a nonverbal 61-year-old with dementia and other medical conditions who required total care. On the night of Jan. 4, 2024, he suffered severe burns in a whirlpool bath that led to his death at West Penn Burn Center on Jan. 12.
Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit Investigator Terry Keelin testified for the state. He said Hedrick had been a resident there since 2017, following an arrest that led to his being sent to Hopemont. Keelin didn’t supply details of the alleged crime or the case.
The investigation included footage from three camera in the hallway that ran between the nurse station and the tub room across the hall, he said. Beard took Hedrick into the tub room at 7:12 p.m., and came in and out of the room – leaving Hedrick alone – three times, for a few seconds each time.
The camera footage did not make clear what Beard was doing, he said, but there was a cart in hall and she may have been getting something off of it.
At about 7:20, Keelin said, Beard came out and spoke to another CNA who came into the tub room with her. Beard wanted her help adjusting the water temperature. For whatever reasons, she hadn’t seen the temperature gauge.
That CNA came out about eight minutes later. Beard came out again and contacted yet another CNA who came into the room with Beard.
The CNA who first came in with Beard later testified that the gauge on the tub showed a water temperature of 134 degrees Fahrenheit. The water level was up to Hedrick’s shins. Regulations prohibit a water temperature above 104 degrees.
Keelin said the water was drained from the tub by the time the second CNA entered the room. Beard and two other CNAs took Hedric back to his room to treat his burns
Questions for Keelin by Prosecuting Attorney Jay Shay brought mention of the other defendant in this incident, Registered Nurse Delilah Clyburn-Hill, into the narrative. Keeling said Clyburn-Hill told the CNAs to leave Hedrick in the tub. While not saying anything, Hedirick was indicating his pain by rubbing his legs and scraping his skin off. He did not receive any pain medication until two hours after he entered the tub room.
Defense attorney Dayton Meadows brought to the stand former Hopemont buildings and grounds manager Dennis Reckhart to pursue a line of thought that faulty equipment played a role in the incident.
Through a long series of questions, Reckhart explained that each hot water tank for the hospital has two thermostats, one for each tank element. The thermostats are made to close if the water temperatures exceeds 120 degrees.
From the tanks, the water flows to a nearby mixing valve where it mixes with cold water and then circulates through the hospital’s miles of pipes. The water typically runs about 118 degrees and cools as it flows, dropping from 102 to 111 degrees by the time it reaches a floor.
They hadn’t had any problems with thermostats for years, Reckhart said, but shortly before the incident one of his staff had talked with the supplier who recommended they keep a spare in stock because malfunctions are unpredictable.
He ordered a replacement and gave it to the employee. Reckhart said he assumed the employee had replaced one of the thermostats, but also said they had no indication any of them were faulty until the night of the incident, when one on top of a tank failed and allowed excessively hot water into the pipes.
Reckhart said he wasn’t on duty that night but was called in afterward and stayed on site for 18 hours. He said that he was placed on leave during the investigation and was cleared of any wrongdoing, but was never put back on the work schedule. That forced him to give his notice and find another job.
Meadows attempted to use the faulty thermostat as the reason for the 134 degree water entering the tub.
But Shay noted Reckhart’s testimony that the tub also has a mixing valve, similar to a home shower, that allows the person filling the tub to control the water temperature.
Meadows said Beard’s actions didn’t rise to the level of criminal responsibility. She sought help when she realized the water was too hot and the situation was outside of her control.
Shay said Beard left the room three times and failed in her duty of care. All she had to do was look at the tub’s temperature gauge and turn the mixing valve knob. “To say it was out of her control is preposterous.”
Issuing her decision, Grimm told Beard that binding her case over to a grand jury was not a finding of guilt or innocence. She simply found probable cause for the grand jury to hear it.
Beard and Clyburn-Hill face the same charges. Magistrate Bo Ward last month found probable cause to bound Clyburn-Hill’s case over to a grand jury. They face fines of up to $5,000 and 5-15 years in prison if convicted.
