Nurse Amputated Patient’s Right Foot To Display In Her Family's Taxidermy Shop

A nurse amputated her patient’s right foot to take the foot home and keep the foot on display at her family's taxidermy shop.

Mary K. Brown, 38, a registered nurse at a nursing home in Spring Valley, Wisconsin, amputated her 62-year-old patient’s right foot on the afternoon of May 27. She told her colleagues that her family owned a taxidermy shop and that she planned to take the patient’s foot from the nursing home and display it at the shop, the Washington Post reported.

According to Brown's colleagues, Brown told them that she wanted to display the leg in the shop and put a sign next to it: “wear your boots kids.”

Brown was charged with two felonies: mayhem and intentionally causing great bodily harm to an elderly person. Meanwhile, the Pierce County district attorney enhanced the possible punishment for each charge by up to six years because she’s accused of victimizing someone 60 or older. Brown faces up to 92 years in prison if convicted of the charges against her.

The patient ended up at the nursing home in Spring Valley after he had fallen at his home and, when the heat went out, suffered severe frostbite on both of his feet.

A few days before the amputation, the man rolled out of bed, and his already severely damaged right foot was further mangled in the fall. Brown then asked Larson, the nursing home’s administrator, for permission to amputate the man's leg. However, Larson said no. He told her to merely stabilize the foot instead because he thought the man would die within hours. Defying those expectations, the patient did not die and held on for several days, prompting Brown to amputate the foot because she “believed it was the right thing to do.”

After amputating the patient's leg, Brown talked about taxidermy and taking the foot home to epoxy it, among other things.

After amputation, the foot was placed in a red biohazard bag and put in a freezer. However, Brown pushed a nurse to retrieve it so she “could take it home to preserve it.”

When he died days later, his body and foot were sent to a funeral home.

Brown admitted to amputating the man’s foot, even though the man never asked her to do so. She told the investigator that she forged ahead without asking and added that a suspected doctor would deny her request.

After conducting his own investigation into what happened, Larson said he determined that Brown had amputated the foot for the man’s “dignity and comfort” and because she “believed it was the right thing to do.”