Married San Angelo Caregivers Indicted for Practices Resulting in Patient's Death

A man and wife running a “personal care home” for the elderly in the 4200 block of Armstrong St. have each been indicted on a first-degree felony for failing to provide medical care to one of their patients, resulting in her death.

Ramon Ricardo Garcia, 56, was arrested and booked into the county jail in April after the victim, 74-year-old Edna Adian, was transported to the hospital with acute ulcers and bedsores on March 30. Adian died in the hospital five days later, her injuries were so severe.

Garcia, a certified nurse’s assistant with over 25 years’ experience, was her primary caregiver. His wife, 57-year-old Debra Garcia, ran the personal care home with her husband and told LIVE! in April that she and her husband had check on Adian regularly, but hadn’t felt the extensive decay was that bad. She claimed to be unaware that Adian had died as a result from complications stemming from the bedsores.

“She didn’t want to go to the nursing home, she didn’t want to go to the hospital, so she got some bedsores,” Garcia’s wife said. “She wasn’t sick, it was just the bedsores, you know. It got a little bit too out of hand, but we were putting medication, trying to do the best we could…I did, I did tell him several times, ‘you’ve got to take her to the hospital’. She (Adian) said, ‘No, no…I don’t want to go, I don’t want to go.’”

According to a complaint filed with the case, Detective Jake Russell was summoned to the hospital along with someone from Adult Protective Services. Upon arrival, the detective witnessed open wounds on Adian’s hip, legs and feet caused by the bedsores. She was sent into surgery and died thereafter.

Detectives Russell and James Hernandez then followed up with the Garcia’s on Armstrong St., where Ramon Garcia showed them to Adian’s room and said that he had confined her to her bed three weeks prior and was providing her everyday care, including feeding, showering and changing her adult diapers.

He also told detectives that he had only noticed Adian’s injuries three weeks prior and was aware that they were bad, but they had progressed in a rapid state and he was treating the wounds, the complaint states. Dr. Russwurm, however, told Russell that he determined that Adian’s injuries were so extensive they would have begun appearing months prior to her March 30 hospital visit.

When her husband was in jail in April, Debra Garcia said they had been taking care of Adian for six or seven years, taking cash and checks for their service. As of April, the Garcia’s had one more patient in their care, a 95-year-old man who reportedly still lives in their care.

Debra Garcia was booked into the Tom Green County Jail on Sept. 11 for one count of injury to and elderly person with serious bodily injury. Both she and her husband have been indicted on the charge and could face five to 99 years in prison if convicted.