Helia Healthcare of Energy: CNA Abuse Allegations - IL

That nursing assistant was the son of the facility's administrator.

The resident, identified in inspection records as R7, had severe dementia. She got around the facility in a wheelchair. On the night of February 22, 2025, according to inspection records reviewed during a December 23 complaint survey at Helia Healthcare of Energy, a CNA identified as V13 took that wheelchair away from her. Multiple times.

What happened next became the subject of a police report, a formal internal complaint, and a federal inspection deficiency citing actual harm.

V13's own written statement, included in the inspection record, describes the evening in his own words. R7 had been calling him names, he wrote, including "druggy, loser, and fool." He asked her to stop. She slapped him and scratched his face. He transferred her to her bed. As he was leaving the room, she threw a water pitcher that struck the back of his head. He left, he wrote, went outside to have a cigarette, and told another CNA he was stepping out. He acknowledged that when he gave his shift report the following morning, he was frustrated, and that his words reflected it. "My care may have been rushed," he wrote, "but it was never aggressive."

A colleague told a different story.

A nurse identified as V12, described in the police report as one of the head nurses at the facility, arrived for work on the morning of February 23 and was approached by a CNA named V22. V22 told her what V13 had said during report: that he had picked R7 up in her wheelchair and dumped her into her bed.

V12 confronted V13 directly. According to the police report, he acknowledged taking the wheelchair but said he had apologized for it. Then he told her what he would do if it happened again. If R7 called him a druggie, he said, he was going to throw water in her face and shove a bar of soap down her throat.

V12 also told the responding officer that R7 herself was saying V13 had been pinching her arms and twisting her skin during the events of that night.

V12 and V22 went together to the administrator, a man identified in records as V1, and filed written statements and formal complaints against V13.

V1 is V13's father.

A local police officer responded to the facility at 3:34 p.m. on February 23, called on a complaint of possible elderly abuse. He spoke with V12 and reviewed written statements from both nurses. He noted in his report that R7's dementia was severe enough that he never attempted to speak with her directly about what had happened.

The administrator told the officer he had come into work that morning after being made aware of the situation involving his son. He said V13 had been suspended pending investigation. He said he and the nursing staff had observed R7 for injuries and found no redness or bruising consistent with the allegations.

The officer noted in his report that he had been advised V13 was the son of the facility administrator. He noted it plainly, without elaboration, in the middle of his account.

The inspection record also includes a statement from a staff member identified as V14, dated February 24, which describes V13 putting R7 in her room and closing the door, not once but three times, before returning with the wheelchair. V14 wrote that V31, another staff member, had not been on the hall at the time of the incident, even though V31 was the one who ultimately returned the wheelchair and took R7 to another wing, where she spent the rest of the night.

What the inspection record does not resolve is the gap between V13's account and what the nurses reported he said during that morning's shift report. V13 wrote that he was frustrated and acknowledged his words were not appropriate. He did not, in his written statement, address the threat about water and soap. He did not address the allegations of pinching and skin-twisting. He said his care was rushed, not aggressive, and he left it there.

The federal deficiency is cited under F0600, which covers abuse, with a finding of actual harm affecting a few residents.

R7 was a woman with severe dementia who used a wheelchair to move through the facility. On the night in question, that wheelchair was taken from her, by one account three separate times. She was, according to her own report to nursing staff, pinched and twisted. She threw a water pitcher. She slapped the person caring for her. She spent the rest of that night on a different wing.

The next morning, the man she said hurt her told his coworkers what he would do if she ever called him names again. Then he went home. His father came in to start the investigation.

The inspection record does not say whether V13 was ever permitted to return to work. It does not say whether the internal investigation was completed or what it concluded. It does not say whether R7's power of attorney was notified, though V1 told the officer he intended to make that call.

It says the facility's abuse prevention policy, last revised in July 2015, states that the facility desires to prevent abuse by establishing a resident-sensitive and resident-secure environment.

R7, by February 24, had spent a night on a different hall, away from her room, after her wheelchair was taken from her by a man who later threatened, in front of coworkers, to force soap down her throat.

Full Inspection Report

The details above represent a summary of key findings. View the complete inspection report for Helia Healthcare of Energy from 2025-12-23 including all violations, facility responses, and corrective action plans.

Additional Resources

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