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Current and former state attorneys say funding has been an issue -- at times they've been asked to suspend work on nursing board cases to save money. But Phillips said the board, which is funded by licensing fees paid by nurses, has enough money. It hasn't raised its fees in 18 years.
There is no legal pressure for the board to act faster. Unlike with disciplinary cases against doctors, there's no statute of limitations on nurses. The delays make the pursuit of cases more difficult: Witnesses die. Records are purged. And former co-workers cannot be found.
Even nurses targeted by the board are frustrated by the slow pace. Kimberly Ann Garza received three years' probation in 2008 -- 6 1/2 years after her bosses at a Central Valley hospital complained that she had failed to account for her patients' drugs. At one point, the investigator went on medical leave and Garza's file sat for 11 months before a colleague took it over.
"If I'm such a danger and I'm such a liability, why were they not on top of this?" said Garza, who denied she stole drugs.
A girl questions why
Caitlin Greenwell grinned slyly as she sat before a special computer at her family's ranch home in Lafayette, about 10 miles east of Oakland. Her eyes darted around a keyboard on her screen, as a sensor tracked her gaze and allowed her to spell out words.
"Let's test my mom," she typed, then looked up with a devilish smile. "We will test my mom on math."
Julia Greenwell laughed. "In so many ways, she's typical," she said.
But the 9-year-old has begun questioning why she is trapped in a wheelchair, unable to control her limbs or speak, said her father, Steven. Caitlin, he said, is "very aware that things didn't go right and some were due to people not doing their jobs."
Like many aggrieved patients and their families, the Greenwells say they feel doubly victimized, first by nurses and then by the board itself. Steven Greenwell said he won't rest until the board disciplines Candyce Warren, the nurse he holds primarily responsible for Caitlin's injuries at birth.
In October 1999, Warren and the trainee she was overseeing missed crucial signs during Julia Greenwell's labor that the baby's condition was deteriorating, according to allegations in a 2000 lawsuit by the Greenwells against John Muir Medical Center in Walnut Creek.
Caitlin was deprived of oxygen and as a result has cerebral palsy, according to the suit, settled in 2003. A doctor paid a separate settlement.
Attorneys for the Greenwells said that Warren was responsible for the trainee, who had little experience reading fetal monitoring strips, and that both nurses tried to cover up their mistakes by altering the medical record.
Steven Greenwell lodged a complaint with the nursing board in June 2003 -- waiting, as his attorney advised, until after the civil case was resolved. The board filed an accusation a year or so later. Then the case disappeared into the state's bureaucracy.
There was no word on the matter until 2008, when the board amended the charges against Warren to fault her handling of a different baby's distress back in 2002. That child was stillborn.
Still there was no resolution for the Greenwells and no explanation for the delays. "I kept calling the nursing board and getting nothing," Steven Greenwell said.
Greenwell said he also spent hours on the phone imploring a deputy attorney general to see the case through -- only to learn recently that she had left her job.
Warren, who still works at John Muir, feels wronged by the board as well. She disputes the allegations and wants to clear her name but wouldn't discuss specifics while the case is pending. At least five hearings have been set, then put off, she said.
"What they are doing is torturing us," she said. "It's not right."
Multiple alleged lapses
There is no legal pressure for the board to act faster. Unlike with disciplinary cases against doctors, there's no statute of limitations on nurses. The delays make the pursuit of cases more difficult: Witnesses die. Records are purged. And former co-workers cannot be found.
Even nurses targeted by the board are frustrated by the slow pace. Kimberly Ann Garza received three years' probation in 2008 -- 6 1/2 years after her bosses at a Central Valley hospital complained that she had failed to account for her patients' drugs. At one point, the investigator went on medical leave and Garza's file sat for 11 months before a colleague took it over.
"If I'm such a danger and I'm such a liability, why were they not on top of this?" said Garza, who denied she stole drugs.
A girl questions why
Caitlin Greenwell grinned slyly as she sat before a special computer at her family's ranch home in Lafayette, about 10 miles east of Oakland. Her eyes darted around a keyboard on her screen, as a sensor tracked her gaze and allowed her to spell out words.
"Let's test my mom," she typed, then looked up with a devilish smile. "We will test my mom on math."
Julia Greenwell laughed. "In so many ways, she's typical," she said.
But the 9-year-old has begun questioning why she is trapped in a wheelchair, unable to control her limbs or speak, said her father, Steven. Caitlin, he said, is "very aware that things didn't go right and some were due to people not doing their jobs."
Like many aggrieved patients and their families, the Greenwells say they feel doubly victimized, first by nurses and then by the board itself. Steven Greenwell said he won't rest until the board disciplines Candyce Warren, the nurse he holds primarily responsible for Caitlin's injuries at birth.
In October 1999, Warren and the trainee she was overseeing missed crucial signs during Julia Greenwell's labor that the baby's condition was deteriorating, according to allegations in a 2000 lawsuit by the Greenwells against John Muir Medical Center in Walnut Creek.
Caitlin was deprived of oxygen and as a result has cerebral palsy, according to the suit, settled in 2003. A doctor paid a separate settlement.
Attorneys for the Greenwells said that Warren was responsible for the trainee, who had little experience reading fetal monitoring strips, and that both nurses tried to cover up their mistakes by altering the medical record.
Steven Greenwell lodged a complaint with the nursing board in June 2003 -- waiting, as his attorney advised, until after the civil case was resolved. The board filed an accusation a year or so later. Then the case disappeared into the state's bureaucracy.
There was no word on the matter until 2008, when the board amended the charges against Warren to fault her handling of a different baby's distress back in 2002. That child was stillborn.
Still there was no resolution for the Greenwells and no explanation for the delays. "I kept calling the nursing board and getting nothing," Steven Greenwell said.
Greenwell said he also spent hours on the phone imploring a deputy attorney general to see the case through -- only to learn recently that she had left her job.
Warren, who still works at John Muir, feels wronged by the board as well. She disputes the allegations and wants to clear her name but wouldn't discuss specifics while the case is pending. At least five hearings have been set, then put off, she said.
"What they are doing is torturing us," she said. "It's not right."
Multiple alleged lapses
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