88-year-old patient’s death prompts charges

Manslaughter and mistreatment charges are expected to be filed as early as today against a care provider and a nurse whose 88-year-old patient died in 2004 from a horrific leg infection.

Deputy Spokane Prosecutor Patrick Johnson said he is waiting for his secretary to type the paperwork to charge 54-year-old registered nurse Karen M. Reichardt with second-degree manslaughter and 33-year-old care provider Jeffrey Wade Hoffschneider with first-degree criminal mistreatment.

The nephews of Gertrude Pohle were using her pension, Social Security and investments to pay about $37,000 a year to keep her in an adult care facility, called Serenity House, at 14815 E. Mission, which has since closed but was operated by Hoffschneider.

Reichardt, who also had been serving as a lieutenant commander in the U.S. Naval Reserves, was Serenity House’s on-call nurse.

The investigation into Reichardt and Hoffschneider began Aug. 6, 2004, the day after Pohle was transported from Serenity House to Valley Hospital and Medical Center.

According to Spokane County Sheriff’s Office and state reports, Pohle’s infection had turned her left leg and foot black and the odor from it was so strong that hospital staff had to wear masks to enter the emergency room.

The photos of the wounds “take your breath away,” Johnson said. “It looks like somebody’s leg you pulled out of a fire. You think about this being on a living person. It’s going to have quite an impact if a jury sees those photos.”

Efforts to reach Reichardt and Hoffschneider were unsuccessful late Monday.

The woman they provided care for went by “Trudy.” Pohle served in the Navy during World War II and later worked for Walt Disney Studios. She died Aug. 15 from complications from the leg infection. She had no children.

During the investigation, Pohle’s personal physician said he had not been asked to see her since Aug. 3, 2003. Instead, he and her nephews, James and Dennis Pohle – a lieutenant with the Spokane Fire Department – apparently had been relying on the medical advice from the nurse, Reichardt.

“This was a case where (Reichardt) more than dropped the ball. She didn’t even have the ball on the court,” Johnson said. “Whatever she did, she didn’t document it. Can you imagine not presenting this to a doctor and saying, ‘Gangrene is crawling up Gertrude’s leg. What should we do?’ “

The autopsy showed that Pohle, who had earlier suffered a stroke that took away most of the use of her left side, also had bed sores on her right and left buttocks. A state investigator found that a second resident in Serenity House had sores on both buttocks and a third resident had a wound with a “bad smelling, yellow drainage,” according to a state report. The facility had only four patients.

Sheriff’s Detective Fred Ruetsch interviewed Hoffschneider after Pohle’s infection was discovered. Five times during their first conversation, Hoffschneider said, “I’m screwed,” and repeatedly asked if he was going to jail, according to Ruetsch’s report.

Hoffschneider said he did his best to treat Pohle’s leg with a method he learned from Reichardt. He said he used a spray bottle full of water and “wound cleaner,” a substance he could not describe or show the detective, saying he had used the last of it.

Hoffschneider said “he only wanted what was best for Gertrude and he was sick about what had happened but that he had made the nurse aware of everything. Therefore, he thought all was well,” Ruetsch wrote.

Pohle’s wound was first documented in mid-June 2004. After almost two months, Hoffschneider said, Pohle’s leg wounds “were so bad they were infected with maggots and he could no longer stand it,” so he called an ambulance to take her to the hospital, said sheriff’s spokesman Sgt. Dave Reagan, who read from Ruetsch’s report.

James and Dennis Pohle both had power of attorney for their aunt. They signed orders instructing the medical staff at Serenity House not to resuscitate her. They also instructed the staff to provide “comfort measures only,” meaning no extreme measures were to be taken to save her life. But that order also called for her care providers to give her medication, hygiene and antibiotic treatment for infections, the state report said.

A worker at Valley Hospital, who was listed in the report but whom Reagan would not identify, said Hoffschneider told her that he had talked with one of Pohle’s family members a few days before she was taken to the hospital. Hoffschneider claimed that “he was told to withhold any further care because she was going to die anyway.”

“I asked if he (Dennis) or James had ever told (Hoffschneider) or (Reichardt) to withhold medical attention … because she was going to die anyway,” Ruetsch wrote. “He said, ‘Of course not.’ Dennis said he really believes that (Hoffschneider) did everything he could for Gertrude, but he was probably over his head.”

James and Dennis Pohle could not be reached late Monday for comment.

Dennis Pohle, the firefighter, said his brother, James, paid the bill to Serenity House using Gertrude Pohle’s pension from Disney, her $140,000 annuity and her Social Security payments.

Dennis Pohle told Ruetsch that about six weeks before his aunt was rushed to the hospital he got a call from Reichardt saying that his aunt had about three weeks to live.

Hoffschneider called about six weeks later and told Dennis Pohle about the maggots in her leg, and the nephew instructed Hoffschneider to take his aunt to the hospital, according to the report.

Ruetsch also interviewed Reichardt, who said she was called in mid-June to examine a wound on Pohle’s leg, which had been rendered useless by a stroke and lost circulation.

Reichardt told Ruetsch that she diagnosed the sore as a “stasis ulcer,” which was caused by lack of oxygen and nutrition, according to the report.

“There is nothing you can do about this type of sore,” she said in a written statement to Ruetsch. “The only treatment is amputation of the non-viable limb.”

She said she based on her opinion on 20 years of nursing experience – including 14 years at the Veterans Administration Medical Center. She added that she didn’t know of a single doctor who would perform the surgery on Pohle because of her age and multiple medical problems.

“I believe she was in the process of dying,” Reichardt wrote. “The only thing keeping Gertrude Pohle alive was the excellent care at Serenity House.”

But Dr. John Sestero, who was Pohle’s physician, told Ruetsch that he was never notified about the leg wounds, which he said were treatable. “In his opinion,” Ruetsch wrote, “this was a definite case of neglect.”

Ruetsch filed paperwork Sept. 16, 2004, requesting the prosecutor’s office to file second-degree murder charges against Reichardt and first-degree criminal mistreatment against Hoffschneider.

Johnson, the deputy prosecutor, said he couldn’t explain why his office took two years to finally bring charges.

“It certainly was a top priority to me,” he said. “I can’t speak to what happened before I got on it.”