When you’re the parent of a child who lives with medical issues, if you’re lucky, you really tend to lean on your health care providers. They’re the ones who are there to take late-night phone calls when something concerning pops up with your little one, or you get to see your child smile at them while they gently provide ongoing care. Sadly though, some health care practitioners have absolutely no business being in the field. A Pennsylvania night nurse was recently arrested and is facing charges after being accused of striking a 3-year-old patient with multiple medical needs.
A night nurse hired to care for a toddler with health issues has been arrested on a child abuse charge.
According to WPVI, a registered nurse who was hired to care for a 3-year-old girl within her home, is in jail facing a child endangerment charge after the parents claimed they have video footage of the nurse harming their daughter.
A Facebook post shared by the Bensalem Police Department in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, names the assigned in-home care nurse as 58-year-old Cindy Dresser. According to the investigation, the child’s mother reviewed home surveillance video and observed the nurse physically abusing her child.
Frighteningly, Dresser was already facing child abuse charges in another county, per WPVI. The family shared that they hired her through Dynamic Home Health Care in the summer to care for their child in the overnight hours.
The home surveillance video of the incident is alarming.
The affidavit of probable cause from October 2025 stated that the child’s mother noticed bruises while changing the toddler’s diaper, which a physician said compared to a thumbprint, according to NBC 10.
Feeling concerned about the unexplained bruising on her 3-year-old, the mother decided to check the home video surveillance from her daughter’s bedroom and was shocked at what she discovered, per the news outlet.
Detectives said “Dresser was seen throwing the child within the crib, striking the child and sleeping during her shift,” per CBS Philadelphia. As if that’s not enough, in an alarming incident, the nurse could also be seen removing the child’s tracheostomy tube and failing “to promptly reinsert it,” which caused the 3-year-old breathing difficulties.
Authorities obtained multiple video recordings, which further captured the abuse, per CBS Philadelphia. The child was taken to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia for treatment.
The mother explains that their night nurse seemed like the ‘ideal caregiver.’
The child Dresser was caring for was born prematurely at 14 ounces with life-threatening conditions that affected her heart and lungs, according to WPVI.
The parents believed they were making the right choice for their daughter and had found her the “ideal caregiver,” per the news outlet. “Twenty years experience in home care, taking care of a kid with the same lung disease as mine. She likes nights. You don’t find that. It was almost too good to be true,” the child’s mother told WPVI.
In disturbing footage from one of the home videos, Dresser can be heard saying to the 3-year-old, “You’re the one that did it. I don’t want to hear it,” WPVI reported. The mother described watching that surveillance footage as “just horrific,” and likened it to seeing “monsters come out at night.”
We would have to agree.
This incident remains under investigation. Dresser’s bail is set at $2 million.
We’re sending this family nothing but wishes for healing and peace. Hopefully, they’ve found a caring and conscientious nurse for their daughter.
If you suspect child abuse, you can call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-422-4453 (1-800-4-A-Child) or go to Childhelp.org. The hotline is available 24/7.
