Yorkpress-  A Carer has been convicted of restraining an elderly dementia patient in his hospital bed by tying bedsheets to the frame.

Olga Dzikiti was asked to give one-to-one care to 88-year-old Harold Dunnington during a shift at York Hospital on January 13 this year.

The 39-year-old care worker assistant, from Rotherham, was looking after Mr Dunnington as he left the Acute Admissions Unit and was transferred to Ward 23.

York Magistrates Court heard the pensioner was distressed when he arrived on the ward and kept trying to remove his oxygen mask. The patient was making attempts to pull his T-shirt and bed sheets towards his neck, which the defendant assumed were efforts to strangle himself.

To prevent him for doing any further harm, she tied the bedsheets to the bed frame, restraining Mr Dunnington across his chest so he could not move his arms.

He was left like this for nearly an hour while Dzikiti sat at the end of his bed and used a tablet device.

His treatment was uncovered when a nurse, who was also working on the ward, came into the six bed room to relieve Dzikiti.

The nurse immediately untied the patient and alerted her boss, who spoke to Dzikiti about what she had done. She admitted Mr Dunnington had been restrained and said she had done it for his own good.

Philip Morris, prosecuting, said: “Irrespective of his mental capacity he was not in a position to move freely.”

Zimbabwean-born Dzikiti, a single mother, may never work in the profession again after being found guilty of wilful neglect. She told the court she had worked in the same role for 15 years and did not set out to harm Mr Dunnington. Magistrates found her guilty and fined her £100, ordered her to pay £620 prosecution costs and a £20 victim surcharge. – Yorkpress