BUCKS COUNTY, Pa. (KYW Newsradio) — An in-home nurse is accused of abusing at least two children in her care. Among the allegations, the woman intentionally removed a tube that one child needed to breathe.
Cindy Desser, 58, of Jamison, was working as an in-home nurse in Bensalem, Bucks County, providing overnight care for a 3-year-old with medical needs requiring around-the-clock care.
Bensalem Police Det. Sgt. Glenn Vandergrift said the mother checked video from a camera in the room after a doctor told her a bruise on her daughter’s leg looked like a thumbprint.
“This is every parent's worst nightmare, and if not for her diligent attention to her daughter and bruising found on her daughter and then going to look at the video she had, you know, who knows what could have happened to this child down the road,” he said.
Per the affidavit of probable cause, the video shows Desser slapping the child and aggressively throwing her around in the crib. Vandergrift said one video showed Desser removing the child’s tracheostomy, saying, “This is your fault,” while the 3-year-old is seen struggling to breathe.
“She eventually put it back in. But this is just horrific for any parent to see something like this on video of someone that's supposed to be caring for their child,” he added.
Desser is charged with felony endangering the welfare of a child. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for April 15. She is held on 10% of $2 million bail.
Similar allegations in Delaware County
A family from Delaware County now accuses Desser of abusing their child — six months before she was accused of abusing the 3-year-old in Bucks County.
The child, born in October 2023, had significant medical needs and spent the first year of her life in the hospital. Once home, she required around-the-clock care.
The civil lawsuit says David and Meredith Nastasi, of Newtown Square, hired Team Select Home Care for an overnight nurse to care for their daughter. They were assigned Desser five nights a week, despite what attorney Sam Dordick said was Desser’s spotty employment record.
“With pediatric night care nursing, that should be a red flag,” he said. “And so what Team Select knew, what they didn’t know, and what questions they didn’t ask are going to be under a microscope in our case.”
The civil filing claims Desser would fall asleep even though she was responsible for monitoring the 1-year-old and would sleep through medical alarms. It says she once fell asleep with headphones on and had to be woken up by the parents.
Image provided in David and Meredith Nastasi civil lawsuit
Image provided in David and Meredith Nastasi civil lawsuit
The civil suit describes one instance in May 2025, in which the child sat up while the alarms were going off, and Desser, it says, walked to the crib, grabbed her by her shoulders, and slammed her upper body down so hard that the crib shook, and medical devices were knocked off a table by the crib.
“To their horror, [they] saw Desser choke-slamming their child — and I say chokeslam, there’s really no better way to put it,” Dordick said.
The parents saw this happen on a camera in the child’s bedroom, confronted Desser, and went to the police.
Felony child abuse charges were filed in September 2025, but while Desser was out on bail, she was hired by Dynamic Home Healthcare in Bensalem and assigned as an overnight nurse to the family with the 3-year-old, according to the civil suit and a criminal complaint in Bucks County.
The civil lawsuit accuses Team Select Home Care of knowing about Desser’s history of mistreating children.
KYW Newsradio reached out to the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services regarding how Desser was able to secure employment despite being out on bail, but has not received a response.
