A Wisconsin nurse who hacked off a dying patient’s foot—without permission and with plans to turn it into a taxidermy shop prop—just walked away from court without spending a single day behind bars.
At a Glance
- Nurse Mary K. Brown amputated a hospice patient’s foot without consent or medical authorization
- Intended to display the foot in her family’s taxidermy shop as a warning to others
- Pleaded no contest to a reduced charge and avoided jail time, receiving only a small fine
- The family and public are outraged at what many see as a slap on the wrist for an egregious abuse of trust
Nurse’s Grisly Amputation Leaves Family and Public Stunned
In a scene that sounds like it belongs in a horror movie, Mary K. Brown—a nurse in Durand, Wisconsin—took it upon herself to amputate the frostbitten foot of Douglas McFarland, a 62-year-old hospice patient, without so much as a doctor’s order or the man’s consent. Brown used a pair of bandage scissors to remove McFarland’s foot as he lay dying at the Spring Valley nursing care center in May 2022. The setting was supposed to be about dignity and comfort in a patient’s final days. Instead, it became the backdrop for an act of medical vigilantism that shocks the conscience.
Brown didn’t stop at just playing doctor—she told colleagues she wanted to mount the severed foot in her family’s taxidermy shop as a macabre warning to “Wear your boots kids.” Even in a world where we’ve seen it all, this level of disregard for human decency and patient rights is hard to fathom. The act crossed every imaginable ethical and legal line, especially in a hospice—where care is meant to be about easing suffering, not inflicting new trauma.
Legal System Hands Out a Slap on the Wrist
After an investigation by the medical examiner and Pierce County prosecutors, Brown was charged with mayhem, physical abuse of an elderly person, and intentional abuse of a patient. You’d think a case this clear-cut—complete with a confessed motive to use the body part as a grotesque shop display—would land someone in prison. You’d be wrong. In July 2025, Brown pleaded no contest to a reduced charge of negligently abusing a patient. Her sentence? No jail time. Just $443 in court costs and a ban from caregiving jobs.
The leniency of the plea deal has left McFarland’s family and many in the community outraged. His sister, Heidi McFarland, has spoken out about the trauma and sense of betrayal. Meanwhile, the public is left to wonder if the system values accountability—or if it’s just another example of authority figures getting a free pass when they’re supposed to be held to higher standards.
A Breach of Trust, a Broken System
Brown’s actions weren’t just a violation of medical protocol—they were a betrayal of the most basic trust placed in caregivers. Hospice patients are some of society’s most vulnerable, relying on the compassion and professionalism of those around them. Instead, McFarland’s final days were marred by an act that would be unthinkable anywhere, let alone in a facility dedicated to comfort and care. The facility itself admitted Brown’s actions were wildly outside her scope and required a doctor’s order. This wasn’t a life-saving emergency. It was one person’s reckless decision, motivated by something more disturbing than just poor judgment.
Now, Brown is barred from working in any caregiving capacity, but the damage is done. The McFarland family has to live with the trauma, and the public is left questioning the effectiveness of oversight in hospice and nursing care. For many, the case has become a symbol of what happens when systems that are supposed to protect the vulnerable are allowed to fail, and when consequences are little more than a cost-of-doing-business fee for those in positions of power. The incident has sparked calls for stricter regulations and more oversight, but for this family—and for anyone who’s ever had to trust a loved one to the care of others—the sense of betrayal will linger far longer than the headlines.
