A former Pennsylvania nurse accused of killing two patients by administering insulin faces additional murder charges and confessed to attempting to kill 19 more people at multiple locations, authorities announced Thursday. did.
In May, Heather Presdy, 41, was arrested on two counts of murder and one count of attempted murder after she admitted to authorities that she intended to kill three of her patients by giving them insulin.
Now, the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office has acknowledged that Ms. Presdy tried to kill 19 other patients with insulin at five different rehabilitation centers across the state, dating back to 2020 and more recently this year. announced. Officials say a total of 17 patients died under Presdy’s care.
The new charges announced Thursday include two additional counts of murder, 17 counts of attempted murder and 19 counts of neglect of a person in need of care.
Presdy was arraigned Thursday, but it’s unclear what charges he entered. A message left with her attorney, Philip P. DiLucente, was not immediately returned.
“The allegations against Mr. Presdy are alarming,” State Attorney General Michelle Henry said in a statement. news release. “It is difficult to understand how nurses who are trusted to care for patients could choose to intentionally and systematically harm patients.”
The attorney general’s office said first-degree murder charges were only filed against Presdy if “physical evidence” was available. The 17 attempted murder charges were filed in cases where “the victim survived an overdose of insulin or the cause of death could not be determined.”
She is accused of abusing a total of 22 patients, ranging in age from 43 to 104.
One of the victims was Marianne Bauer, 68, who died in September 2021 under Presdy’s care at Bel Air Healthcare Rehabilitation Center in Lower Burrell.
For two years, the family believed Bower died of respiratory failure. Investigators later learned in September that Presdy admitted to killing Bower, who was not diabetic, with insulin, said attorney Rob Peirce, who is representing Bower’s estate in a separate wrongful death lawsuit against Rehabilitation. I informed the investigating authorities. center.
“This is one of the worst cases we’ve ever seen where a member of the health care system went from facility to facility and unfortunately admitted to killing multiple people,” Peirce said in a phone interview. .
Peirce said Bower’s family wanted to know how Presdy was able to work at 11 rehabilitation facilities over a five-year period starting in 2018.
Bel Air Healthcare Rehabilitation Center did not respond to a request for comment.
According to the complaint, staff at the center began to notice that Presdy was exhibiting “behavioral issues” and that the health of patients in her care could “unexpectedly deteriorate.”
Several staff members began calling her the killer nurse, according to the complaint.
That same year, the state health department investigated the center after noticing a pattern in residents showing signs of complications from acute diabetes, according to the complaint.
Ms. Presdy told Health Department investigators that she did not call the facility’s physician to treat one such patient, in violation of the center’s policy. According to the complaint, the Department of Health cited the rehabilitation center in August 2021 and deemed the residents to be in “imminent danger.”
Still, the lawsuit continued, and the center “failed to further investigate” Ms. Presdy.
of criminal charges A report filed by the attorney general on Thursday revealed a history of alarming comments made by Ms Presdy over several years, both on social media and in conversations with colleagues at the rehabilitation centre.
Witnesses told investigators that Presdy made derogatory comments about the people in his care, saying things like, “You’re going to die anytime soon,” according to the complaint.
Prosecutors said in a news release that Presdy typically administered insulin “during night shifts when staffing was low and patients would not be immediately admitted to the hospital in the event of an emergency.”
According to the complaint, Presdy took additional steps to remove the victim, including administering either a second dose of insulin or air embolization to ensure death if he sensed the victim was “persistent.” He said he intended to kill him.
Mr Peirce said Mr Bower’s relatives were “sickened” when they learned of Mr Presdy’s confession earlier this year.
“Today’s charges do not diminish that pain,” he said. “But they are optimistic that this is the next step in bringing justice in this matter, not just for their family, but for all the other families involved.”
