Former Madison State Hospital Nurse Sentenced For Abusing Elderly Patients

The former nurse will spend 100 days in jail before beginning a six year probation period.

(Madison, Ind.) - A former nurse at Madison State Hospital has been sentenced to 100 days in jail for battery involving four elderly mental health patients.

The Indiana attorney general’s office says Sharon Back, 67, was given her punishment this week after pleading guilty last month. After release from jail, she’ll serve six years on probation.

Back was fired from the hospital after an internal investigation into allegations by her coworkers that she was abusing patients in the hospital’s “Healing Heights” unit, which housed patients with physical infirmities.

All four of the victims were over age 65. Two of them were 79-years-old.

“Professionals who care for sick, elderly and infirm Hoosiers have special roles and responsibilities that we all expect them to fulfill,” Attorney General Curtis Hill said. “When these individuals decide to bring harm instead of help, they betray us all. Our office will continue to hold accountable those who abuse their positions of trust in this manner.”

Back agreed to have her nursing license revoked in March 2016. The criminal charges were filed the following October.