By Shereen Siewert
A Wausau nurse is facing criminal charges connected to her grandmother’s death after she allegedly stopped giving the diabetic woman insulin and instead gave her a supplement she was selling on social media, according to court documents.
Kandise L. Sheahen, 36, faces charges of negligently subjecting an at-risk individual to abuse, causing death. The charge was filed June 16 in Marathon County Circuit Court, about five months after the woman’s death, and carries additional potential penalties because the crime was allegedly committed against an elderly or disabled person.
Police say Sheahen was the woman’s healthcare power of attorney.
In the weeks prior to the woman’s death, police say ambulance crews were called multiple times to the home for a lift assist after she had fallen out of bed. Sheahen refused to allow emergency crews to transport the woman to the hospital or check vital signs and was “adamant not to do anything further for the patient,” court records state.
Family members contacted police and said the woman had expressed fears for her safety at home prior to her death. They also noted that Sheahen in early December had an influx of social media posts involving selling non-FDA-approved drugs and claimed she had taken her grandmother off her insulin, pain and blood pressure medication in favor of supplements.
“12 days on Q Core, and my 82-year-old grandma is down on her insulin and off her Tylenol,” Sheahen’s online sales pitch allegedly read.
Sheahen, who is licensed as a nurse in Wisconsin, also allegedly made multiple statements online about her distrust of the healthcare system and said to “trust Jesus, say your prayers and take your vitamins.”
“My goal in doing this is truly to be the hands and feet of Jesus,” she allegedly said in a voice recording obtained by police. “I truly want to help people. And I want them to get off all the crap that the healthcare system puts them on. Because what I’m finding out, what I found out with grandma when I took over her care over thee years ago she was on 18 different pills. She was on 70 some units of the long-acting insulin twice a day, and like 30 or 40 of the short-acting. And as tine has went on and the more knowledge I’ve gained and the more strength I’ve gotten from God, I’ve realized that hold on, like let’s, we don’t need this much. This is ridiculous.”
In interviews with police, Sheahen denied taking her grandmother off insulin and said the statements were made as advertising. But a journal found in the alleged victim’s home documented dates and times of the woman’s blood sugar levels and a note about when she started “vitamins,” consistent with the timeline Sheahen posted on Facebook, police said.
Autopsy results showed the woman’s cause of death as diabetic ketoacidosis, a serious problem that can happen in people with diabetes if their body starts to run out of insulin. When this happens, harmful substances called ketones build up in the body, which can be life-threatening if it’s not found and treated quickly. Additional complicating factors in the medical examiner’s report showed a COVID-19 infection and cardiac issues, court documents state. The woman also had a catheter and IV in place at the time of her death, but the medical examiner showed no evidence of such an order. Sheahen, who is listed in some court documents with the last name Sporer, allegedly told police the IV was inserted for hydration because she was unable to persuade her grandmother to drink fluids.
Records show the woman’s blood sugar level repeatedly between 300 and 500 in the days and weeks leading up to her death, several times higher than the normal level, which is 140 or below. But Sheahen told investigators she believed older people should have higher blood sugar than younger people and that she didn’t care “what Joe Biden says” with his “strict criteria.”
“Your ambulance would have been there like 150 times if I kept her blood sugar where they wanted them,” she said.
Sheahen said she wanted to “tell her selfish little asshole grandkids or whoever it was that called and said I killed grandma that it was COVID or diabetes or whatever,” court documents state.
The woman died Jan. 8 at her Garfield Street home. No lifesaving measures were performed before EMTs arrived, according to the incident report.
During an initial appearance June 16, Circuit Judge Strasser ordered a $25,000 signature bond for Sheahen, with conditions that she may not provide medical treatment and not to sell any medical products, the same conditions ordered during a June 2 probable cause hearing.
Future court dates have not yet been set.
