Case is eerily similar to Canadian angel of death Elizabeth Wetlaufer
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A Pennsylvania nurse accused of bullying and abusing her ailing patients is being eyed in 17 deaths in an eerily similar replay to Canadian angel of death Elizabeth Wetlaufer’s reign of terror.
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Wetlaufer — a London, Ont.-area nurse — was caged for life for killing eight senior citizens and attempting to murder six others in southwestern Ontario nursing homes between 2007 and 2016.
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Now, Heather Pressdee, 43, is being accused of administrating excessive doses of insulin to scores of patients. Seventeen died.
One alleged victim was 43-year-old “brittle diabetic” Nicholas Cymbol, who died from an excessive dose of insulin last May at Sunnyview Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Butler, Penn.
In a wrongful death suit, his family claims Pressdee insulted, berated, bullied, and abused the vulnerable victim.
Cymbol’s death followed on the heels of another suspicious death last April 17.
The suit claims: “Pressdee set her sights on Nick Cymbol, a brittle diabetic who often experienced large swings in his blood glucose levels and required routine insulin administration to maintain his blood sugar.
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“Though Mr. Cymbol was well-liked by the staff at Sunnyview Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, Pressdee routinely insulted, berated, bullied, and abused Mr. Cymbol, just as she had done to other residents.”
The lawsuit adds: “Staff at Sunnyview Nursing and Rehabilitation Center were aware that Pressdee disliked Mr. Cymbol and that she held the belief that people with a quality of life like Mr. Cymbol did not deserve to live.”
She routinely called him derogatory names such as “retarded” about his anoxic brain injury in earshot of other Sunnyview staffers, court documents alleged.
And on several occasions, Pressdee is accused of preventing other nurses from giving Cymbol food or water.
On the day before his death, she allegedly vowed that Cymbol “was going to be the next one to die.” Others complained about the nurse’s “erratic and troubling behaviour” but administrators allegedly did nothing.
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“It is absolutely beyond the pale that no one did anything after Pressdee made this promise regarding Mr. Cymbol,” court documents said.
Pressdee is accused of intentionally administering excessive doses of insulin to 22 patients between 2020 and her arrest last May, according to the PA state attorney general’s office.
She is accused of poisoning 19 patients, with 17 succumbing to the overload of insulin. Not all of the alleged victims even had diabetes.
Pressdee faces one count each of murder of the first and third degree, three counts of criminal homicide, two counts of criminal attempt – murder in the first degree, and charges of aggravated assault, neglect of a care-dependent person, and recklessly endangering another person.
She remains caged without bail.
According to local media reports, Pressdee admitted to a number of incidents, claiming “she felt bad for their quality of life and she had hoped that they would just slip into a coma and pass away.”
Last November, her lawyer told WPXI that his client was remorseful.
“She has remorse, yes. I know that sounds trite, but as crazy as the whole thing is, she does express remorse, and I think her expression of remorse is sincere,” Dan DePasquale said.
@HunterTOSun
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