An Iowa nursing home worker who was criminally charged with repeatedly ignoring her colleagues’ requests to check on a resident and with falsifying records about the incident is now facing the temporary suspension of her nursing license.
Licensed practical nurse Asteria Nganyange, also known as Asteria Montgomery, of Mason City, was criminally charged in November 2024 with dependent adult abuse through neglect and tampering with, or falsifying, records.
State records indicate Nganyange, 38, was working at Mason City’s Heritage Care and Rehabilitation Center on April 14, 2024, when a resident fell and struck his head.
Nganyange did an initial assessment of the man’s condition’s but then failed to perform the required follow-up assessments necessary to check for neurological damage, despite repeated warnings from co-workers and residents that the man was acting in an odd manner and couldn’t walk as her normally did, state inspectors allege. Nganyange “didn’t once come back and do anything for him,” a medication aide reportedly told the inspectors.
According to the inspectors’ written reports, the man was eventually taken to a hospital, but the Heritage staff later learned he had suffered a heart attack en route, and another one while at the hospital. The records give no indication as to whether the man survived.
Administrators at Heritage later reviewed video surveillance footage from inside the facility and concluded that Nganyange never performed the eight neurological assessments she claimed to have performed on the man, according to the inspectors. State reports indicate Heritage fired Nganyange shortly after the incident and then reported her conduct to the Iowa Board of Nursing.
According to the inspectors’ written reports, when they spoke to Nganyange about the matter, she “didn’t deny that she falsified the neurological check assessments; she stated she just didn’t recall doing it.”
The Iowa Department of Inspections, Appeals and Licensing fined Heritage $3,250, according to state records.
In March 2026, after 18 continuances in her criminal case, Nganyange pleaded guilty to both the dependent adult abuse charge and the tampering with records charge. She was fined $430 and granted a deferred judgment that will result in the conviction being expunged from public court records after the successful completion of one year of probation.
In July 2025, the Board of Nursing charged Nganyange with failing to assess, accurately document, evaluate, or report the status of a patient, and with behavior that constitutes knowingly making misleading or untrue representations in the practice of the profession by falsifying records.
To settle that case, Nganyange recently agreed to a nine-month suspension of her nursing license, with the understanding that her license will then be placed on probationary status for 18 months.
Her attorney, Timothy L. Lapointe, said in a written statement that his client “regrets the unfortunate incident that led to her (license) suspension.”
Court records indicate one of the continuances in the criminal matter was due to some sort of negotiations with the Board of Nursing related to the outcome of the disciplinary charges.
Lapointe said Monday his client “appreciates the reduction in suspension” the board agreed to due to what he called “the mitigating factors, including her completing additional nursing classes to correct any prior problems that she caused.”
