Nurse pleads not guilty to amputating dying man's foot without his OK or doctors' orders

A western Wisconsin nurse accused of amputating a hospice patient's frostbitten foot without his consent and without doctor's orders pleaded not guilty Thursday.

A lawyer for 38-year-old Mary K. Brown, of Durand, Wisconsin, entered pleas of not guilty for her to charges of mayhem, physical abuse of an elderly person and intentionally abusing a patient, causing great bodily harm, WEAU-TV and WQOW-TV reported.

After she cut off the man's right foot on May 27, Brown told her colleagues that she wanted to display it at her family's taxidermy shop with a sign that said: "Wear your boots kids," according to charges filed in Pierce County.