Share and Follow
Inset: Cindy Desser (Bensalem Police Department). Background: Locust Avenue in Bensalem, Pennsylvania, where Desser allegedly assaulted a 3-year-old girl (Google Maps).
A nurse from Pennsylvania has been accused of violently mishandling a 3-year-old girl who requires constant medical attention. According to allegations, she slammed, slapped, and withheld the child’s tracheostomy tube.
The nurse, identified as 58-year-old Cindy Desser, faces charges of child endangerment. The Bensalem Police Department provided information on the case. A probable cause affidavit reviewed by Law&Crime indicated that Desser was hired as an overnight nurse for the child at the family’s residence on Locust Avenue in Bensalem, a suburb of Philadelphia. Last month, the girl’s mother discovered bruises on her daughter’s inner thigh while changing her diaper.
The child was taken to a hospital, where medical professionals identified the bruise as resembling a thumbprint.
Upon inspecting footage from a surveillance camera in the girl’s room, her parents allegedly saw Desser hitting the child multiple times. The footage also reportedly shows Desser “aggressively” handling the girl in her crib. On one occasion, the child supposedly dislodged her tracheostomy tube, and the video purportedly captures Desser delaying its reinsertion while telling the child, “you did this” as she struggled to breathe. The nurse was also seen asleep during her shift, according to the complaint.
Desser is employed by Dynamic Home Health Care. Authorities noted that she violated several company policies and ethical standards.
The girl’s parents, who wished to remain anonymous, spoke with local ABC affiliate WPVI. They told the outlet that Desser appealed to them because she had 20 years of experience and took care of another child who had the same lung disease as the girl. The girl was born prematurely and weighed just 14 ounces at birth and is in need of special medical care.
“She likes nights,” the mom told WPVI about Desser. “You don’t find that. It was almost like too good to be true.”
Unfortunately for the girl and her parents, it appears that it was.
Watching the video of their daughter gasping for air after Desser allegedly withheld her tracheostomy tube was especially hard.
“This was the most disturbing one. Thank God my daughter is so strong,” the mother told the outlet. “It was just horrific. I just couldn’t believe it. It’s like almost like monsters come out at night.”
The father called the whole situation a nightmare. Another alleged incident also stood out to him.
“All our little girl did was sit up and look at her for a minute and she got shoved to the ground. It’s really sick and horrible,” he said.
He hopes Desser loses her nursing license and faces justice.
“I just hope she gets to sit in a room with other people that did bad things,” he told WPVI. “A snake can shed its skin so many times and it’s still a snake. So, you gotta watch out.”
WPVI reports that Desser has since been fired from her job. She remains in the Bucks County Jail on a $2 million bond. Her next court date is set for April 7.