Caregiver charged with manslaughter

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SACRAMENTO, Feb. 13 (UPI) -- A California care provider was arrested for involuntary manslaughter in the bedsore-related death of her elderly charge, records showed.

Silvia Cata, 52, the owner of a Sacramento residential care facility, Super Home Care, was arrested Monday for the death of Georgia Holzmeister, 88, the Sacramento Bee reported.

Cata called Holzmeier's granddaughter June 18 to say the patient was faring poorly, and the granddaughter found the elderly woman unresponsive and covered with bedsores, the Bee reported.

Holzmeier was moved to a nursing home, but on June 23 died of sepsis, a life-threatening condition that develops from pressure sores that form when patients remain in one position for a long time, the Bee said.

In an unprecedented move, the state's justice department is pursuing a manslaughter charge against a care provider in the case of the death of an elderly patient, said Deputy Attorney General Steven Muni, who is a prosecutor with the Bureau of Medi-Cal Fraud and Elder Abuse.

Cata also faces a charge of elder abuse and is being held in jail in lieu of $300,000 bond. She face a maximum sentence of 12 years in prison on the abuse charge and and a maximum of four years on the manslaughter charge.