Nurse Charged for Killing 19 Patients in US

Manas Dasgupta

NEW DELHI, Nov 4: Heather Pressdee, a nurse in the US state of Pennsylvania, previously charged with causing deaths of two patients through excessive insulin doses, is facing additional charges after prosecutors say she admitted to trying to kill 19 patients in her care across various rehabilitation centers where she was employed, according to the state’s attorney general.

The 41-year old Pennsylvania nurse was already facing charges after Pennsylvania’s Attorney General Michelle Henry said the registered nurse from Natrona Heights confessed to intentionally administering a lethal dose of medication to three patients at the Quality Life Services nursing facility in Chicora, a borough in western Pennsylvania. She was charged in May with homicide and attempted murder after two men, ages 55 and 83, died and a third was hospitalized.

On Thursday, Henry’s office filed additional charges related to the mistreatment of 19 other patients Pressdee treated between 2020 and 2023 at five different care facilities. The new charges include two counts of first-degree murder, 17 counts of attempted murder and 19 counts of neglect of a care-dependent person. In total, 17 patients who were being cared for by Pressdee died, Henry’s office said.

Ms Pressdee had been allegedly administering excessive insulin to these patients since 2020, regardless of their diabetic status, resulting in the tragic deaths of 17 of those patients.  The victims are aged between 43 and 104. “The allegations against Ms Pressdee are disturbing. It is hard to comprehend how a nurse, trusted to care for her patients, could choose to deliberately and systematically harm them,” said Attorney General Henry.

Pressdee was arraigned on Thursday for the additional charges. “The damage done to the victims and their loved ones cannot be overstated,” Henry said. “The damage done to the victims and their loved ones cannot be overstated. Every person in a medical or care facility should feel safe and cared for, and my office will work tirelessly to hold the defendant accountable for her crimes and protect care-dependent Pennsylvanians from future harm,” the Attorney General added.

Ms Pressdee had previously been charged in May for mistreating three patients, two of whom died. This increases the total number of patients she is accused of mistreating to 22. She is facing different charges based on the evidence available. She is charged with first-degree murder when there is concrete physical evidence linking her to the cause of death. She is charged with attempted murder for the cases where victims survived or in which the exact cause of death could not be determined.

Ms Pressdee has opted not to have a preliminary hearing and is in custody at Butler County Prison in a Pennsylvania without bail. Pressdee’s defence team said she was “cooperating” with prosecutors and investigators. She hasn’t entered a plea in any of the charges, attorneys Jim DePasquale and Phil Di Lucente said. “The goal from the very beginning of these matters was to not have the death penalty imposed. We are in pursuit of that goal,” the attorneys said.

In the criminal complaint filed against Pressdee, Henry’s office said that Pressdee admitted to “harming, with the intent to kill” all 19 patients named in the complaint. The patients were being treated at numerous facilities, including Concordia at Rebecca Residence, Belair Healthcare and Rehabilitation, Quality Life Services Chicora, Premier Armstrong Rehabilitation and Nursing Center and Sunnyview Rehabilitation and Nursing Center, according to the complaint.

“Pressdee would often work the medication cart, administer insulin during the night shift when staffing was lowest and the facilities were quiet,” the complaint reads. “Pressdee often took steps to ensure her victims would expire prior to shift change so that they wouldn’t be sent to the hospital where her scheme could be discovered through medical testing such as C-peptide tests.”

Pressdee also allegedly administered a second dose of insulin or would use an air embolism to make sure a patient died if she felt that they might survive, the complaint states. In one instance, staff members at the Belair Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center suspected that Pressdee was killing patients and alerted administrators, according to the complaint.

In response to complaints, Belair suspended Pressdee pending an investigation but later said an internal investigation concluded there was “no identifiable evidence uncovered to support the concerns of Pressdee’s co-workers,” the complaint states.

Attorney Robert Peirce III, who is representing the family of Marianne Bower, 68, identified as “M.B.” in the criminal complaint, filed a wrongful-death lawsuit in September against Belair Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center, where Bower died.

According to Peirce, Bower’s family initially believed Bower died of respiratory failure but were later approached by investigators who told the family that Bower was given a fatal dose of insulin even though she was not diabetic.