A former guardian was busted Monday after filing a “do not resuscitate” order against a dying patient’s wish in May 2019.
50-year-old Rebecca Fierle-Santoian was charged with abuse and neglect of an elderly person following her arrest on Monday evening. The charges are stemming from a months-long investigation.
An unidentified 74-year-old man had died after the suspect obtained a court order to stop his treating and capping his feeding tube even though he repeatedly claimed his “strong desire to live and that he understood his condition.”
Fierle-Santoian ignored the patient’s wishes and told medical staff she preferred “quality of life versus quantity of life,” prosecutors added. The guardian has allegedly “abused her powers” in dozens of similar cases in at least two Florida counties.
