The state attorney general has accused a Pennsylvania nurse of administering lethal insulin doses to two patients.
Heather Irene Pressdee of Natrona Heights allegedly administered “overdoses of Insulin” to patients while working as a registered nurse in Quality Life Services in Chicora. This was revealed in a press release by the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General.
According to a criminal complaint, she worked at the facility between May 23, 2022 and November 28, 2022.
One patient died on December 4 and another on December 25. The office stated that they were 55 and 83.
Officials said that a third patient, aged 73, received an unhealthful amount of insulin in August 2022. He survived after emergency hospitalization.
Two of the three patients did not have diabetes. The names of the patients have not been revealed.
Pressdee, the AG of Washington state, said that she was arrested Wednesday at her home on charges including homicide and attempted murder. She also faces aggravated assaults, reckless endangerment, negligence, and neglect.
She was arraigned on Wednesday night, and is currently being held in the Butler County Prison. It is not known if she has retained an attorney.
The Attorney General, Michelle Henry , said that the nurse was to take care of the patients. However she “intentionally and maliciously injected them (with insulin) to kill them.”
Henry stated in a press release that the allegations “show the callous abuse by a professional nursing staff of extremely vulnerable patients.” As the charges show, these were deliberate acts committed by a caregiver trusted to take care of these victims.
Quality Life Services didn’t respond immediately to a comment request Friday.
A criminal complaint states that authorities launched an investigation when a relative of the victim complained in a letter about the nurse’s involvement in the improper administration insulin to her patients. The criminal complaint states that all three victims were taken to hospital immediately following a Pressdee shift because they had low blood sugar.
According to the complaint, one of the deceased patients was nonverbal. He was identified as J.B. The complaint states that he was brought to the hospital by a medical team in October 2022. A medical team found out he had a critically low blood glucose level. He was sent back to his facility after being treated.
J.B. died two weeks after being hospitalized again for low blood glucose on Nov. 20, 2022. The complaint states that a nurse told authorities Pressdee allegedly stated J.B. was “better dead” than alive.
J.C. was the other victim, who died. He was also a hospice patient, and a roommate of J.B. According to the complaint, he was transported to the hospital just 10 minutes after J.B.’s hospitalization in November. J.C.’s family chose to have him returned to the facility where he passed away on Christmas Day.
In the complaint, it states that E.A. (the third victim) was found in bed seizing shortly after being treated by Pressdee. The third victim, identified as E.A., was found seizing in his bed shortly after receiving care from Pressdee.
Pressdee informed investigators that E.A. According to the complaint, Pressdee told investigators that E.A. She allegedly told him she took insulin out of the medication cart and injected one syringe into his stomach.
It says: “She said that he started showing symptoms and she didn’t address them, and the next shift sent him to hospital.”
The complaint claims that when Pressdee was asked about the two other victims, she allegedly replied that their quality of living was poor. She is accused by the complaint of injecting 60 units of insulin short-acting into each victim.
According to the complaint, Pressdee was disciplined at other facilities for “abusive behavior toward patients and/or employees” and either quit or was terminated.
