A Maplesville nurse arrested and charged with abusing and/or neglecting a patient at a Clanton nursing home has been convicted.

Attorney General Luther Strange announced the conviction of Katherine Blevins Lenoir, 53, earlier this week. Lenoir pleaded guilty to one count of reckless abuse of a protected person, which is a class C felony.

She is a former employee of Don Hatley Healthcare and Rehabilitation. The attorney general’s office said Lenoir, who is a licensed practical nurse, inadvertently administered a large dose of a narcotic pain medication to a patient instead of the requested cough medicine.

Instead of alerting the facility to her mistake, Lenoir manipulated treatment records to reflect that she had given the correct medication, according to the attorney general’s office.

The patient, who was suffering from the overdose, was discovered by a nurse on a later shift and rushed to a hospital where she spent several days in intensive care before recovering.

The attorney general’s office said had Lenoir reported her mistake right away, the patient would not have suffered nearly as much from the prolonged effects of the narcotic, and that she almost died.

Lenoir will be sentenced May 11 before Chilton County Circuit Judge Ben Fuller. She faces up to 10 years in prison.

Strange thanked the management of Hatley Healthcare for their prompt reporting of the incident and commended his Medicaid Fraud Control Unit for their investigation and prosecution of the case.