NJ NJ - Charles Cullen for killing dozens of patients in NJ & PA, Somerset, 2003

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

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.

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?

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

You go to the hospital to get well and some nut is waiting with a needle.

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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.

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

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.??

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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.

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)

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)

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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.

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.

Somerset Medical Center waited four months to notify authorities about suspicions that an employee was killing patients, and during that time nurse Charles Cullen murdered five more, according to taped conversations recently made public.

The hospital is defending the delay and says it thought the appropriate step instead was to contact the state Department of Health and Senior Services about possibly abnormal laboratory results in several patient deaths.

Chief medical officer William K. Cors, in a recorded July 2003 conference call with the state poison control center, said Somerset was not ready to alert police, even though the poison control chief warned the hospital it appeared to have a killer on its hands.

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/local/states/new_jersey/11961141.htm

A convicted serial killer who targeted hospital patients while he worked as a nurse will be charged next week in the deaths of five more people, according to a published report.

Hunterdon County prosecutors will file charges against Charles Cullen on Monday, The Star-Ledger of Newark reported Saturday, and he is expected to plead guilty to all the charges. The five victims were patients in critical care units at Hunterdon Medical Center, the report said.

Cullen has pleaded guilty to murdering 24 patients and attempting to kill five others between 1988 and 2003 at medical facilities where he worked in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

Cullen, who worked as a nurse for 16 years, has claimed to have killed dozens of patients.

http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/104-06252005-507241.html

A convicted serial killer who targeted hospital patients while he worked as a nurse will be charged next week in the deaths of five more people, according to a published report.

http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/104-06252005-507241.html

The confessions by 45-year-old Charles Cullen brought to 29 the number of victims he admitted killing in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The five new victims ranged in age from 49 to 81.

Cullen has admitted killing patients at Somerset Medical Center in Somerville; Warren Hospital in Phillipsburg; St. Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston and Morristown Memorial Hospital, as well as facilities in Easton, Salisbury Township and Fountain Hills, Pa.

He was arrested in December 2003.

He was able to move from hospital to hospital, despite suspicions he was killing patients, because the institutions did not report their fears to authorities.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8378620/

Eight families who gained a $95 million civil judgment in 2010 against serial killer nurse Charles Cullen — but likely won't see a dime of it — have failed in their latest attempt to drag St. Luke's University Hospital back into their lawsuits.

The families had asked a panel of state Superior Court judges to reverse Lehigh County Judge Edward D. Reibman's order dismissing St. Luke's from their cases.

http://www.mcall.com/news/breaking/mc-charles-cullen-appeals-denied-20120327,0,6541056.story

Eight families who gained a $95 million civil judgment in 2010 against serial killer nurse Charles Cullen — but likely won't see a dime of it — have failed in their latest attempt to drag St. Luke's University Hospital back into their lawsuits.

The families had asked a panel of state Superior Court judges to reverse Lehigh County Judge Edward D. Reibman's order dismissing St. Luke's from their cases.



http://www.mcall.com/news/breaking/mc-charles-cullen-appeals-denied-20120327,0,6541056.story

From March 2006:

http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/03/02/killer.nurse/

Judge Paul W. Armstrong then handed down 11 consecutive life sentences. Parole is out of the question, since Cullen, 46, will not be eligible until he has served 397 years.

Cullen has pleaded guilty to committing 22 murders in New Jersey and seven in Pennsylvania. He also admitted attempting to murder six people.

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A West Orange native, Charles Cullen’s first suicide attempt was at the age of nine when he drank chemicals from his chemistry set. After the death of his mother at age 17, Cullen decided to enlist in the Navy where another suicide attempt had him discharged early. He went on to attend the Mountainside School of Nursing in Montclair and got a job as a nurse at the St. Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston in 1987. Cullen’s first victim was Judge John W. Yengo in June 1988. The patient had an allergic reaction to a blood-thinning medication and was admitted to St. Barnabas where Cullen was assigned as his nurse. Cullen gave him a lethal dose of medication that killed him during his stay at the medical center. His murderous spree continued for 16 more years as he administered lethal drugs to over 40 innocent patients at six different hospitals in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. ---- PHOTO: Charles Cullen, 43, of Bethlehem, Pa., is shown in a courtroom in Somerville, N.J., Dec. 15, 2003.



Suspicion began to arise while Cullen was working at Somerset Medical Center in 2003 when the New Jersey Poison Information and Education System began to look into the high number of patient overdoses at the hospital. Cullen’s co-workers mentioned they noticed him going into patient’s rooms he was not assigned to and requesting medications his patients were not prescribed. He was fired from Somerset in October and police kept Cullen under surveillance until they had enough evidence to arrest him on one count of attempted murder on Dec. 14, 2003,. In April 2004, he pleaded guilty to killing 13 people at Somerset Medical Center. Seven months later, he pleaded guilty to killing six more people in Pennsylvania. Cullen currently faces 18 life sentences and is eligible for parole in 397 years. ---- PHOTO: Asbury Park Press coverage of Charles Cullen's trial in 2006.



Exterior of Somerset Medical Center, where nurse Charles Cullen claimed he killed at least 15 patients.



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The mother of Michael Strenko told the court at Cullen’s New Jersey sentencing in 2006 about the pain she lived with after the prolific serial killer nurse murdered the 21-year-old man three years earlier. “[My son would] say, ‘I know what you need, Mom. Mom needs a hug,’” Mary Strenko recalled. “Now, instead of giving him presents, I get to put flowers on his grave.”

Dolores Stasienko was blunt when she got the chance to confront Cullen in court about killing her 89-year-old war veteran dad, Jack Toto: “Burn in hell, Mr. Cullen, for all eternity,” she told the convicted killer she called a “monster.”