Ex-Nurse Claims to Have Killed 30-40 Patients

[Doyle]

A former nurse was charged with murder Monday after telling prosecutors that he has killed 30 to 40 severely ill patients in Pennsylvania and New Jersey since 1987 by injecting them with drugs.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,105816,00.html

[Toth]

I bet the investigation turns up some employers who knew but just passed on the problem to someone else because they wanted to avoid bad publicity or lawsuits by not reporting events and suspicions to authorities.

Digoxin is often used by Gypsies to cause the deaths of elderly men, I thought its presence couldn't be detected on autopsy.

[veepee]

Another good reason to put your trust in God.You go to the hospital to get well and some nut is waiting with a needle.He was on his way to my town "say what you want about my city"We caught him.How did those other cities let him go un notice?

[Imon128]

Makes Nurse Ratchett look a little different, eh? LOL What a SICKO that guy is.

[Toth]

You go to the hospital to get well and some nut is waiting with a needle. The vast majority are not intentional murderers; they are perhaps ill-trained and often poorly paid and usually less-than-dedicated, but few are murderers.

[ajt400]

How did this guy actually get away with doing this for so long without someone noticing? A family memeber, co-worker, ect.??

[Ghostwheel]

Originally posted by ajt400
How did this guy actually get away with doing this for so long without someone noticing? A family memeber, co-worker, ect.?? From the article:
"Prosecutors say he gave the seriously ill patients lethal drug overdoses to end their suffering."

It's possible that the people were so ill that it would not be untoward for them to die, or that the family was so relieved that their relative was no longer suffering that they didn't question. When my father died, anyone could have given him something to kill him, but he had been suffering and going downhill for so long, we wouldn't even question his death. It seemed like it made sense.

[ajt400]

I understand that, but I don't think that makes this guy's actions humane or right. What right did he have to do that? Did the patient's ask for his mercy? (Undoubtedly he will say they did)

[Ghostwheel]

Originally posted by ajt400
I understand that, but I don't think that makes this guy's actions humane or right. What right did he have to do that? Did the patient's ask for his mercy? (Undoubtedly he will say they did) No, it does not make his actions right. I was only speculating on why he managed to get away with it for so long, as I thought you were wondering.

[Toth]

Partly its instituional 'mind blindedness'. Partly its a question of presumptive trust.

Dr, Swango who killed so many patients was first suspected with the very first patient he killed.

The pediatric nurse in a small Texas town had been let go when her previous employer decided to staff her unit with only licensed RNs, but that policy was adopted solely because they suspected the nurse of several murders. All the hospital did was let her leave and when hired in the small Texas pediatric practice she killed there too, resulting in the divorce and near bankruptcy of the doctor.

Shipman who killed over four hundred patients in the UK basically got away with it because all those who complained about a doctor intentionally killing his patients were thought of as 'angry relatives'.

Hospitals like to bury their mistakes. Often the "grief counselor" who approaches the relatives is really the hospitals risk-mananagement lawyer and he discourages an autopsy. He doesn't tell the family, I'm really the hospital's lawyer and I'm trying to protect the hospital's interests.