MAPLETON, Iowa (AP) – A western Iowa nursing home has been fined after staff removed a disabled Navy veteran from the facility and left him in an unfurnished apartment with no food or medication.  The Des Moines Register reports  staff from Elmwood Care Centre in Onawa dropped off 65-year-old John Chedester on Nov. 1 at an apartment building in Mapleton. He was hospitalized after a neighbor and local police intervened. The nursing home says Chedester, who suffers from several ailments, was involuntarily discharged because he was unable to pay his bill.

Chedester is back at Elmwood. The federal government fined the home more than $5,700. A spokeswoman for the facility’s management company says the company does not condone how the situation was handled. A DHS spokeswoman said the department cannot discuss the case.