Lidocaine Case Study

Nysha Moore

Nurse Injects Patients with Lidocaine

1. Examine how the evidence showed – when there were no eyewitnesses – that the defendant was the one who killed the 12 patients.

2. Discuss the processes hospitals should implement to prevent such occurrences (e.g. hiring practices and background checks).

For this particular case, there does not have to be an eyewitness to prove that the defendant is responsible of the death of the 12 patients. The defendant encountered contact with each of the 12 patients that suffered death. After her encounter with each patient, nine of the patients developed similar symptoms such as seizures, cardiac arrest, and respiratory arrest. There were no signs of these illnesses in the 12 patients prior to the

Therefore, she had ample of opportunity to inject the 12 patients without eyewitnesses being present. She also left evidence of lidocaine in syringes near each patient’s bed. She was also seen leaving After further investigation of the case, detectives also discovered syringes of lidocaine at the defendant’s home.

Moreover, the evidence became stronger when investigators correlated that the same situation took place at two different hospitals; the exact same two hospitals where the defendant worked. Pretrial discovered that 26 other patients had died at the defendant’s first hospital while the nurse’s care (Pozgar & Santucci, 2015, p. 120, para. 3). Although there were no eyewitnesses, she left a trail that lead back to her to prove that she murdered the 12 patients.

In order to prevent such criminal acts from happening in the hospital setting, there are many actions that hospitals should take to reduce the risk of violence. When hiring hospital staff, there should be investigation of each applicant’s background. This is done by administering criminal background checks as well as drug tests. Employers should also do reference checks to see if previous supervisors and coworkers would recommend the applicant for the position. They can also provide feedback about their personal work experiences with the applicant as well as the applicant’s work