Nurse investigated after dying patient, 92, leaves her $1m

AFTER being left a $1 million fortune by an elderly patient in his dying days, a Melbourne nurse is now under investigation.

Lionel Markey Cox

AFTER being left a $1 million fortune by an elderly patient in his dying days, a Melbourne nurse is now under investigation.

Lionel Markey Cox, 92, was brought to a Victorian nursing home last year after becoming too frail to stay in his own home.

The Age reports when he died in August, he left his $900,000 estate and $36,000 cash and all his possessions to the home's manager Abha Anuradha Kumar.

Neighbours have since said Mr Cox often said he intended to leave his worldly possessions to the state or to institutions who had cared for him.

"I knew Lionel for more than a decade and find it impossible to believe that he would knowingly have left his estate to an individual he hardly knew," a neighbour said.

Ms Kumar is now being investigated by the Nursing and Midwifery Board and declined to comment.

A Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia spokeswoman said a nurse should "take all reasonable steps to ensure they do not accept gifts or benefits an impartial observer could view as a means of securing the nurses' influence or favour."

Originally published as Nurse investigated after dying patient, 92, leaves her $1m