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Matilde Campodonico / AP
The deaths of patients at this hospital in Montevideo, Uruguay, is part of the investigation that led to two arrests.
Two hospital nurses in the capital of Uruguay have been arrested as police investigate allegations that they killed dozens of patients, possibly up to 200, over several years at two hospitals.
Officials suspect that patients, all of whom were in critical condition, were given some sort of poison brought in from neighboring Brazil, police inspector Jose Luis Roldan said Sunday.
Most of the victims were not terminally ill and their deaths were "unexpected," judicial sources told the newspaper El Pais in Montevideo.
The suspects reportedly cited "humanitarian reasons" for their actions but officials believe they killed patients who "demanded too much attention," the sources added.
The arrests followed a two-month investigation triggered by an anonymous tip, El Pais reported, adding that the two nurses appeared to have worked separately and barely knew each other.
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Please do not refer to these people as nurses. A nurse will give up her own lunch break to make sure patients are taken care of. They will forego bathroom breaks to do what is needed. I have met and worked with many true nurses. They are the priceless gem that makes sure the patient get what the patient really needs. Not this...
As far as I am concerned, nurses are the backbone of the medical profession, period.
Nobody is saying nurses are bad in general. These two were just malign. Evil. These kinds of people exist.
The truth is that no profession is filled with 100% competent people. There are good and bad to every profession. As far as nurses go, while some are what you have described, there are also some who are not. It is completely fallacious to assume that all nurses are what you described.
Nurses do kill people. Riverside Hopsital in Newport News, VA had nurses to with hold information from me and my siblings about my fathers condition because they had already decided to withold food and treatement so that my father will go ahead and die. He died and after he died my father's doctor told us what they had done. I say it was murder!!
Sorry to hear about your experience, but if true why no murder charges? I imagine that Newport News VA must be the most unethical place in the US if this is true.
Ever hear of HIPPA? Even when you are in a dying situation you still have the right to privacy no matter what you think. Just because you are fmaily does not give you the right to breach that privacy. The way you sound in your post you woud probably be the last person I woulld give any information to. Yes I am also a nurse. You are totally wrong Jessica and sound extremely bitter, if the nurses did even one thing wrong they would lose their license and also would be brought up for criminal charges. Next time think before you post false information!
BTW Jessica where were you when you father needed assistance with eating? Hummmm pretty easy to blame others now isn't it.
Jessica, I'm sorry you went through that. But honestly, if none of you were listed as next of kin, the hospital doesn't HAVE to tell you anything. Simply because you were related doesn't mean anything when it comes to patient privacy. There have been numerous instances in the past 17 years I've worked in hospitals, on various types of units, where there were rifts in families to where the patient did not want ANYONE but the next of kin told anything.
Jessica, He probably had an Advanced Directive giving the Dr. medical Power of Attorney. That's the smartest thing if you trust your doc because it keeps families from being torn apart as so often happens when it's time to let go. If that's the case, the Dr. was within his legal and moral boundaries.
Read some History...Virginia's medical profession is pretty scary. You've got an ultra-conservatism here with a dash of Hitler superiority and intolerance for those in weak positions. Nurses and doctors routinely deny effective treatment to the poor or those they deem as inferior. Not too long ago (in fact, about 36 years ago), these people were secretly sterilizing folks, killing others, and doing "medical" experiments on others. Effective medical care should be one of the few human rights that all are guaranteed to have. They should hang these women and let the birds peck out their eyes in the hot sunny sunshine.
AmericanPauper,
By your logic a nurse did something wrong, so all nurses everywhere are bad. A boy scout leader molested a boy, all boy scout leaders are evil. A Soldier killed innocents, all Soldiers are evil. A teacher raped a girl, all teachers are evil. A cop stole some money, get rid of all cops.
Get real.
Army, Nope...just teaching you something about History and the nature of our wonderfully conservative, intolerant society...and how it relates to other intolerant societies of the past.
Here is some more reasoning...all American wars are justified, worthwhile, and conducted to defend "American" liberty, even though most of them seem unrelated to American liberty or its defense.
How in any way does what you just said relate to two Ugandan nurses killing patients?
I am in no way conservative. Maybe a bit naive to believe that MOST nurses, doctors, and medical professionals are working people who want to 1st: earn a living, 2nd: make a difference and help people. I also believe MOST cops are good, MOST priests/pastors are inherently good (note: I am atheist), MOST teachers care about their students and would never hurt them.
I want to see the good in people and society. Are we an intolerant society, of course. Do I support the wars I fought in, no.
American, you sound anything other than an American. I think you could read a little better into history and don't just skim this time.
chris: You are now talking for EVEYONE?
Two of them doing the same thing at the same place with potentially the same drug, yet they didn't really know each other? The odds of that are pretty darn slim. These two women are disgusting, I'll admit sometimes I want to do not-so-nice things to people who are too needy and try my patience, however I would never kill nor think about it and I certainly wouldn't be in a job as demanding as that. They aren't nurses, they are maniacs.
Happens here in America too by intent or accident. Just goes unreported or reported as over medicated __— and died. No follow up either on most of these incidents.
It is too easy to do anywhere. several years ago I was in prep for some test. A nurse came up and "inspected" the IV that was stuck in my left arm, just above my wrist. It seemed unusual to me and I almost complained to her about that not being necessary. And, there were witnesses in the room including my wife. I had an allergic reaction to something from that day that caused a rash and I coughed up stomach fluids while out, both being unusual according to the doctors. I have always though that nurse applied something to the IV area that caused the rash. The coughing, I do not know about. But, since then I am always more cautious about what is going on in hospitals.
These cases add to my concern.
She was probably making sure that the line was patent before anything was infused through it. We check lines regularly for safety's sake. Don't say that a nurse doing her duty by checking that your IV was properly placed is the same as two women killing patients for absolutely no reason. You could have had a reaction to the medications used that caused a cutaneous rash and then thrown up the contents of your stomach by not fasting long enough before the procedure. Blaming it on her is a huge stretch.
Hi Allison, I just wanted to agree with you. People have allergic reactions all of the time, as far as the vomiting goes it also could have been caused by an allergic reaction. How long has this guy been going around his town attempting to give the impression to his listener's that the nurse was doing something that he deemed NOT necessary and that she was doing something possibly illegal?
He obviously doesn't know that there is constant checking and rechecking, I work in the medical field and this is a common pratice in hospitals.
Definitely agree with both of you. I went from not having any reactions to suddenly being allergic to adhesives. Although I don't have an immediate reaction. It shows up usually after a day or so. It's part of the nurses job to make sure the IV is intact. If she hadn't checked, and it blew during the procedure, then ne'd be complaining that she wasn't doing her job.
Hospitals operate on written PROCEDURES which in a sense is a good thing because they are developed by more knowledgeable professionals and remove the emotional factors in the heat of the moment but they can be a death sentence in the event that they are used without thinking them through. MHO
Damn. They coukld ghave snuck across the southern border and been hired by Obamacare.
Seek help. Once again...you've reminded me to be grateful ignorance isn't catching.
That is a stupid comment. Why bring politics into everything? Oh and stop "voting" your own comments, that makes it all the more stupid.
lefsux, do you have any idea how stupid you make yourself sound...guess not, sorry my mistake.
This strikes me as pretty strange, really- back in the day, one usually went into the medical professions inspired by compassion- from an idealistic desire to do good and serve people in need.
Florence Nightingale was a hero of epic proportions to that generation.
I can only surmise that this casually murderous behavior is a consequence of people going into it solely to make money- and a desire for efficient profitability at maximum cost with minimal staffing drives rather different behaviors- as most employees of larger American corporations can tell you from personal experience.
NO. This type of person goes into it looking for the attention. Munchausen (sp) by proxy. They get off on the attention they get trying to save someone they made sick. See it often in parents as well making there kids sick for the attention the parent gets. These nurses are mentally ill, not just going into a profession looking for money. And most places, you will NOT get rich working as a nurse. Long days, no lunch break more often than not and dealing with patients or families who think they are that nurses only patient and they're there to do everything the patient wants.
Healthcare professions attract some excellent people with great intentions who are kind and caring (although administrators love to take advantage of that kind.)
But the dark side of healthcare is that that the nature of the work also draws sociopaths.Healthcare gives those with no conscience, no sense of empathy for others,and sadistic tendencies, socially acceptable ways to get to watch people suffer,to take in horrible,gruesome tragedies, to inflict pain,to bully new coworkers and use the excuse that they care so much for the patients(yeah, right),to always be around excitement which many sociopaths need to be able to feel anything other than anger and lust, to have power over life and death,and to have power over the patients in their care.
Healthcare also draws people with chemical addictions.Some of them are abusing narcotics.Some are even there to try to get their hands on the narcotics at the healthcare facility that were meant for the patients.We also get a lot of practicing alcoholics.
For every bad apple there are usually several good ones,though.Certainly not every unethical healthcare provider who intentionally does something spiteful to a patient because they can is an "angel of death."
However I agree with the posters who said that the kind of thing in this article happens in the U.S. more often than people realize.In my 30 years as an RN I've seen what was probably homicide of patients by a healthcare provider.In one case I was working in a nursing home in Springfield, MO where there was a ridiculously high number of sudden, unexpected, unexplained resident deaths.Some of the residents who died suddenly were disabled, but stable and had been thriving at the facility until they would be suddenly found dead.Somebody hotlined the place anonymously and the unexplained deaths were still under investigation by the authorities when I left.
In another instance, as an agency nurse I worked in an ICU in Joplin, MO for four or five shifts, and during that time I was suspicious of another ICU nurse there.She was very emotionally unstable-not appropriate for an ICU-wanted patients to go into cardiac arrest so she could resuscitate them,and was always bragging that she was the "code queen" meaning that for some reason her patients went into cardiac arrest more often than anyone else's.None of these patients went into unexpected cardiac arrest when there were other nurses or doctors around though.She gave me the creeps, but I never witnessed her harming a patient, so I don't know what came out of that.
An interesting read is "Nurses Who Kill" by Clifford L. Linedecker and William A. Burt.There have been other cases in the news in the U.S. since that book was written. Just last year an RN in Minnesota got put away.
Not long after I started working in a hospitals, I was there when a doc opened the morphine pump on a comfort care patient....cranked it up as high as he could. Granted, the guy was dying, but the doc certainly sped things up a lot.
I finished reading one not too long ago: Perfect Poison: A female serial killers deadly medicine. Always been fascinated by what makes people do this kind of stuff. All I can say is that I hope I never get investigated for anything...I have WAY too many books about serial killers.
As a nurse I can say, we've all done that.
Eliminating the nuisances? Sounds like these two believe in natural selection.
So much for retiring in Uruguay.........NEXT!
Just a suggestion, maybe the Court system should try the two nurses, after all that is the purpose of the various court systems.
In my community most of the offenses at hospitals and nursing homes happen on the night shift where there are few if any supervisors available.
How did their co-workers not catch on until 200 patients were unexpectedly dead?
While I do know of cases where healthcare providers have intentionally harmed a patient,your story doesn't sound like that is what happened to you,at all.IV lines have to be checked frequently to make sure that they are still patent, running,securely fastened, and that there is no sign of infection at the insertion site.A nurse is negligent if s/he doesn't do that.Additionally when a patient has an adverse reaction to some part of the treatment it is not usually because someone was being malicious, but more likely just that no one knew that you were sensitive to whatever caused your rash.I would suggest though that you get a copy of your medical record from that visit to find out what medication you were given, so you can tell people that you are allergic to it in the future, not because someone intentionally harmed you.Just applying something to the IV site wouldn't cause a rash on other parts of the body or vomiting.
My parents are from Uruguay. My mom is a Retired Nurse and my Dad a Doctor. I can said that the hospital were the incidents occurred are for people who're really poor. This patient probably didn't have any family members to take care of them.The salary of Nurses and Doctor are not even close to the ones here in the States. My mother worked for almost 30 years in a Private Hospital there. She was a Nurse and an Operation Room Nurse. Right now she is getting $750 per months in retirement. So get an Idea. She knew of a few cases were the Nurse would go after seniors with property & without families.The Nurse would take care of the patient until the end. In exchange they got an Apartment or House in the Nurse Name.
Whether they're poor or not shouldn't make a lick of difference. They go in for care, they should be treated the same as someone who has money. Now, that being said, I know reality is often far from the truth. I have seen it in the last hospital I was at. There were the "important" patients who got everything down, and the others were pushed aside until there was time.
hmm...could be they killed them on purpose ....but reminds me of "doctor death" as well...who knows!
Just like Obamacare... without the killings... ;)
What a sad story. I would hate to have a loved one die at the hands of anyone that was entrusted to care for them. These two women, if found guilty, need to be locked up, and the key needs to be thrown away.