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ABC News

January 5, 2010

3 Nursing Home Patients Killed by 'Chemical Restraints' California

Attorney General Says Nursing Director Drugged Patients to Control Them

Prosecutors say misuse of a powerful drug caused elderly patients' deaths.

What happened in a bucolic nursing home nestled in the California mountains starting in 2003 shocked investigators. When residents at the Kern Valley Nursing Home complained or annoyed nursing director Gwen Hughes, prosecutors say she chemically restrained them with powerful anti-psychotic drugs. Her methods were so severe, three residents died.

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Phyllis Peters' mother Fannie Mae Brinkley was a feisty 97-year-old who suddenly lost energy. "I'd say, 'I can't get my mom awake,'" Peters remembers. "She just won't rouse, she's lethargic."

No one told Peters that her mother had been given a powerful anti-seizure drug that prosecutors say killed her.

Peters says of her mother today, "I'm absolutely convinced she would have lived to be 100. Absolutely."