Police in Hungary have arrested a 24 year old nurse in connection with the deaths of as many as 40 elderly patients in the internal medicine department at Budapest’s Nyírô Gyula Hospital over the past year. She is being held under maximum security at the central police headquarters in Budapest pending the outcome of further investigation and tests by a court psychiatrist.
Hungary’s health minister has ordered a review of medication practices and night-time nursing at all the country’s hospitals in the wake of the arrest.
The nurse, identified only as Timea F was formally arrested on 17 February. Police officers acting on information from hospital staff had summoned her to police headquarters two days earlier. Police officials alleged that the nurse admitted she had introduced lethal doses of sedatives, including morphine, into the intravenous tubing of 30 to 40 patients—in her words, "to help them die." She identified 21 of the deceased patients by name, police said.
Dr Gábor Takács, director general at Nyírô Gyula Hospital, said that, although drugs such as morphine are kept under lock and key at his hospital, the nurse had "obviously been holding back on drugs she was supposed to be giving patients." He continued: "A nurse may have access to any medicines from the hospital’s supply even if only permitted to administer them on orders from a doctor." Police said they found several boxes of drugs during a search of the nurse’s home. Until her arrest, she had been living with her parents and a sibling in a family house in Pomáz, just north of Budapest. She had been working at Nyírô Gyula Hospital since receiving her nursing certification in 1994.
Dr Marianna Vadnai, head of the hospital’s internal medicine department, described her as "well qualified" and "an excellent worker." Dr Takács pointed out that "not even the best internal procedures are able to protect an institution from psychotic individuals. If there were no nursing shortage in Hungary, and two people could be on a shift together, the risk could be reduced. Nurses should be working in pairs or in teams to supervise each other."
There is indeed a dearth of nurses in Hungary, largely because of poor wages. Nurses currently take earn about 28000 Hungarian forints (L67; $97) a month. Dr Takács suggested that a law requiring postmortem examinations of patients who die in hospital could also deter intentional killings. Hungary has no such law.
The health minister, Dr István Mikola, said that a lack of money and staff was no explanation for what allegedly happened at Nyírô Gyula Hospital, pointing out that there are regulations prescribing the duties of doctors, nurses, and other hospital staff, as well as the ordering of drugs. On hearing of the deaths, Dr Mikola cut short a trip to Sweden to return to Hungary. The minister ordered the State Public Health and Medical Officer’s Service (ANTSZ) to suspend the operation of the internal medicine ward at Nyírô Gyula Hospital.
He also instructed the ANTSZ to examine medication and night shift practices at all of the country’s some 160 hospitals. What had happened at the hospital was "not euthanasia but a crime," Dr Mikola said. "At issue are practical matters, such as who has access to the medicines. No matter what the institutional rules are like, it is inconceivable for a night shift nurse to have control over life and death."
Author: Carl Kovac
Source: BMJ - 10 March 2001.