GUILTY Canada - Registered nurse facing 8 murder charges, Woodstock, Ont, 25 Oct 2016

[meanmaryjean]

It's not exactly readily available. Medications are dosed and dispensed from a machine, after the nurse enters the perscription information and patient information, which is all documented and charted. She'd have to leave legitimate patients untreated in order to use their insulin on another patient, and then the legitimate patients would show high blood sugar values, so someone would know that they didn't get their insulin.

However, since the investigation went so quickly, perhaps all the evidence came from the charting and records. Would the police have exhumed and tested the bodies in just three weeks? Aren't all people who die in nursing homes given an autopsy? Would death by insulin be evident?

No- I meant was insulin generally available without a Rx?

 

[SeesSeas]

This is how nurse serial killer Charles Cullen accessed drugs to kill patients:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Cullen
The hospital's computer system showed that Cullen was accessing the records of patients to whom he was not assigned, co-workers began seeing him in the rooms of patients' to whom he was not assigned, and the hospital's computerized drug-dispensing cabinets showed that Cullen was requesting medications that his patients had not been prescribed. Cullen's drug requests were strange, with many orders that were immediately canceled, and many repetitive requests within minutes of each other.

 

[kdgdid]

yes insulin is available with out a prescription in Canada. This was brought in so that diabetics who did not have their insulin with them go go to a pharmacy and request it.

 

[LayzeeDayzee]

OMG I know!!! I thought the very same thing when I browsed her FB profile earlier today. Made me sick. Just sick. I've been an RN in Canada for almost 30 years and it is just unfathomable to ever wrap my head around the fact that a fellow RN would murder precious elderly folks.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?...860475.-2207520000.1477422131.&type=3&theater



:furious:
Newsflash ... I'm pretty darn sure those victims' families would have loved more time with their loved ones too.

Wonder if the two elderly ladies pictured in the May 12 post are victims .. "enjoying the Lord together"?

 

[DexterMorgan]

My goodness! I feel as though I was hit with a hammer. Bethe is a really sweet person from a wonderful, caring family that I've known for 40 years. I just can't believe it! My head is spinning.

You are not alone.

And I don't even know her.

But she seems down to earth.

Just wow.

 

[kdgdid]

Amid police concerns that she would commit a “serious personal injury,” Wettlaufer was made subject of a peace bond earlier this month with 10 conditions, including that she live with her parents in Woodstock, observe a night-time curfew, and refrain from acting as a caregiver to anyone.

In addition, she was banned from possessing insulin or any other medication unless it was for her own use. She was also barred by the court order from visiting any long-term care facility, nursing or retirement home, or hospital unless she needed medical treatment.

Wettlaufer was further required to “continue any treatment for mental health,” and stay away from alcohol.

http://www.lfpress.com/2016/10/25/n...-with-eight-counts-of-murder-at-nursing-homes

This article states that she was prohibited from possessing insulin unless it was for her own use.

 

[DexterMorgan]

It must be more to this story if they let her out of jail to stay with her folks and away from care facilities after 8 supposed murders.

 

[LayzeeDayzee]

Not true at all. Insulin bottles are kept in a med fridge in the med room. A nurse could easily draw up a whopping dose of a short-acting insulin and administer it to an elderly patient, whether diabetic or not, and nobody would be the wiser. Care homes like this are busy places where the ratio of the RNs to residents is astronomical. The RN giving out the medications isn't going to be monitored by any of the other staff, nobody is going to notice if she gives a non-diabetic patient a shot of insulin because they're far too busy providing personal care, changing diapers, toileting, turning in bed, feeding, etc.....plus the care aids and such likely don't have a clue who is diabetic and who isn't. Even in acute care settings bottles of insulin a med fridge aren't monitored or the volume counted each time a nurse withdraws a dose. The latter is one done for liquid or injectable controlled substances like narcotics (where each dose is recorded in a special book, how much used, what patient, time, how much left, often has to be double-signed by another RN....and a final count between nurse going off shift and nurse coming on shift to ensure the count is correct).

Not all residents who die in a nursing home are given autopsies. It's based on the coroner's decision, taking into account many factors (was death expected due to a terminal chronic condition, was death unexpected, where there unusual circumstances surrounding the death (eg: a fall), etc. A family can always request an autopsy, however.

My guess is that the investigation went as quickly as it did because the anonymous person who gave LE a tip/reported these deaths, they obviously had some pretty specific information that LE was able to substantiate pretty easily. Who knows what kind of information they shared, things they might have witnessed surrounding those residents/their deaths. Seems a little odd that if the last reported death was in 2014 that it took them this long to come forward with info but who knows, maybe the murderous nurse confessed something to someone, general or specific, and it then caused the wheels to turn in this person's mind.

It's not exactly readily available. Medications are dosed and dispensed from a machine, after the nurse enters the perscription information and patient information, which is all documented and charted. She'd have to leave legitimate patients untreated in order to use their insulin on another patient, and then the legitimate patients would show high blood sugar values, so someone would know that they didn't get their insulin.

However, since the investigation went so quickly, perhaps all the evidence came from the charting and records. Would the police have exhumed and tested the bodies in just three weeks? Aren't all people who die in nursing homes given an autopsy? Would death by insulin be evident?

 

[LayzeeDayzee]

It doesn't make any sense, tho. If you're charged with 8 murders, you're charged with 8 murders. I can't begin to imagine what other facts, unbeknownst to us, would allow an alleged serial killer to remain anything other than in remand.

It must be more to this story if they let her out of jail to stay with her folks and away from care facilities after 8 supposed murders.

 

[DexterMorgan]

It doesn't make any sense, tho. If you're charged with 8 murders, you're charged with 8 murders. I can't begin to imagine what other facts, unbeknownst to us, would allow an alleged serial killer to remain anything other than in remand.

Agree. I wish we knew who the victims were and their prognosis for being in their plus their CODs.

Were they already almost gone and she saved them the final days suffering.

Or was she killing people that was okay and not in terminal pain or what?

What is the motive. Did she do it to attend funerals or to steal their personal possessions or what.

 

[Lilibet]

A little about each victim...

http://www.lfpress.com/2016/10/25/n...ged-with-eight-counts-murder-at-nursing-homes

 

[kdgdid]

It must be more to this story if they let her out of jail to stay with her folks and away from care facilities after 8 supposed murders.

She is not out on bail.
She was picked up by LE Monday night and formally charged Tuesday.
LE started investigating on Sept 29th at that time a peace bond was ordered with the 10 conditions mentioned in the articles.
On Sept 30th she resigned her nursing license.

 

[musicaljoke]

Agree. I wish we knew who the victims were and their prognosis for being in their plus their CODs.

Were they already almost gone and she saved them the final days suffering.

Or was she killing people that was okay and not in terminal pain or what?

What is the motive. Did she do it to attend funerals or to steal their personal possessions or what.

I wish that I knew the motive too. I doubt that it was to steal anything, since nursing home residents generally don't have anything worth stealing. And it they did, it's easy enough to steal it without murdering them.

For her sake, and the sake of the victims' families, I hope that there was no malice intended.

 

[musicaljoke]

Not true at all. Insulin bottles are kept in a med fridge in the med room. A nurse could easily draw up a whopping dose of a short-acting insulin and administer it to an elderly patient, whether diabetic or not, and nobody would be the wiser. Care homes like this are busy places where the ratio of the RNs to residents is astronomical. The RN giving out the medications isn't going to be monitored by any of the other staff, nobody is going to notice if she gives a non-diabetic patient a shot of insulin .. <snip>

Not all residents who die in a nursing home are given autopsies. It's based on the coroner's decision, taking into account many factors (was death expected due to a terminal chronic condition, was death unexpected, where there unusual circumstances surrounding the death (eg: a fall), etc. A family can always request an autopsy, however.
.

Even at our tiny, local facility, insulin isn't freely available anymore as you describe, so I would be quite surprised to know that it is still like this at Caressant Care, which is a large nursing home. But, it's available OTC and certainly not restricted.

Death by insulin overdose would be an unusual circumstance, I would think. It's not like giving a patient a lethal dose of a barbituate and they simply go to sleep. Insulin overdose would cause some alarming symptoms that should lead the staff to send the victim to the hospital.

 

[dumpater]

My quick analysis.

EW was under the influence when she committed these crimes. She got sober days after her last alleged murder and stayed clean for a year but the guilt was overwhelming. She relapsed and went back to rehab. That's when LE was tipped off and she was placed on the peace bond because they feared she'd take her own life.

Just my two cents.

 

[Kamille]

Just catching up on this horrific case. Is it possible that her therapist was the person who tipped off police? It seems obvious that she knew the charges were coming.

MOO

 

[greenthumb]

http://www.woodstocksentinelreview.com/2016/10/25/arpad-horvath-says-he-visited-his-father-every-day-at-meadow-park-nursing-home-before-he-died-in-20

Horvath’s daughter, Susan Horvath, said she felt something was amiss before her father died and that he seemed to be in a lot of fear, “I just had a feeling and I told mom,” Horvath told radio station AM980. “And then when he passed on — and how he passed on — that’s when I knew: This is not right,” she said

Asked if he believes the death could have been a “mercy killing,” Horvath was adamant he does not.

“He wasn’t suffering. He was a regular dementia patient,” he said of his dad. “It’s just tragic.”

This family's perspective is concerning - were these 'mercy' killings, or something more sinister?

 

[Dockins]

Nursing homes rarely have Pyxis machines to dose meds. SOME INSUlins can safely be stored at room temp for a limited time on the med cart. Perhaps Canada is different, but I have never needed a second signature to administer a narcotic in that setting, but of course wouldn't need to count before and after shift with second nurse. Usually due to staffing, I would be the only nurse on a unit during some shifts. Overnight, the only one in facilities with up to several dozen residents. But I agree with the nurse unthread who stated she wouldn't give narcotics for a few reasons.
I also see her being called a practical nurse in some articles. Is it certain she was an RN? Not that it really matters, I guess.

 

[dumpater]

Nursing homes rarely have Pyxis machines to dose meds. SOME INSUlins can safely be stored at room temp for a limited time on the med cart. Perhaps Canada is different, but I have never needed a second signature to administer a narcotic in that setting, but of course wouldn't need to count before and after shift with second nurse. Usually due to staffing, I would be the only nurse on a unit during some shifts. Overnight, the only one in facilities with up to several dozen residents. But I agree with the nurse unthread who stated she wouldn't give narcotics for a few reasons.
I also see her being called a practical nurse in some articles. Is it certain she was an RN? Not that it really matters, I guess.

Yes she was definitely an RN. You can look up nurses in the Ontario Board of Nursing website and it will tell you what kind of license she has and whether she was an RN or practical nurse. She was an RN.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[dotr]

http://cnews.canoe.com/CNEWS/Crime/2016/10/25/22677639.html
[h=2]So-called 'angels of mercy' not new[/h]

For lesbian lovers Gwendolyn Graham and Cathy Wood, there was no pretence that they were motivated by altruism: Instead, killing was their way of sealing their sick bond. The two nurses aides were accused of suffocating five residents at the Alpine Manor nursing home near Grand Rapids, Mich., with allegations that they chose their victims by their initials with a plan to eventually spell out the word M-U-R-D-E-R. Most of the patients were suffering from Alzheimer&#8217;s.

The Lainz &#8220;Angels of Death&#8221; were four nurses&#8217; aides in Vienna who admitted murdering 48 patients during a six-year spree in the 1980s. Their &#8220;mercy&#8221; killings soon expanded to murdering those who wet the bed or buzzed the nurse&#8217;s station too often.

In her 2014 study of health-care serial killings, Dr. Eindra Khin Khin, a forensic psychiatrist in Washington, D.C., found the majority of cases took place in a hospital and 20% in nursing homes. Just over half were committed via lethal injection.

A Journal of Forensic Sciences study in 2006 examined 90 cases of health-care murders between 1970 and 2006 in more than 20 countries: 86% were committed by nurses. Criminologists identified a number of red flags, including a history of mental instability, a tendency to &#8220;predict&#8221; death, a substance abuse problem, a work history of moving from facility to facility, and a preference for working at night or when fewer staff are around.

rbbm