Criminal law, International

Italian Nurse Accused Of Killing As Many As 38 Patients

v3-TwitterDanielap copyOne of the stories making the news here in Italy is the arrest of Daniela Poggiali, 42, a nurse who is accused of killing at least 38 of her patients because she found them or their relatives to be annoying. She was initially charged in the death of an elderly patient and now police believe that she is a serial killer.

The case of Rosa Calderoni draw attention of the authorities because she been admitted for a routine illness and when she died there were high levels of potassium in her bloodstream. At least 10 other deaths are now being listed as “very suspicious”.

Prosecutor Rossella Materia called her a sadist who “who draws pleasure in provoking the death of the patients in her care.” One picture on her phone reportedly shows her giving a thumbs up next to when of her patients who had died seconds before. The public statements are an interesting dimension since Italy prosecutes people for criminal libel, as in the abusive case against the parents of Amanda Knox that we discussed earlier. While comments against the police can bring a charge, it clearly does not apply when prosecutors make such comments against individuals.

Even a colleague described her as a “cold person who was always eager to work.” This included the allegation from a co-worker that Poggiali would give patients strong laxatives at the end of her shift to make work more difficult for the nurses taking over.

Poggiali told police that she is innocent and the victim of a conspiracy by her enemies.

The case could prove very difficult given the length of time that has passed.

Source: MSN

650 thoughts on “Italian Nurse Accused Of Killing As Many As 38 Patients”

  2. How about cheese?

    Port Salut cheese is probably one of the stinkiest cheese in the world and smells like old gym socks or someone with a really nasty case of trench foot. If you can get past the smell, it actually tastes pretty good.

    Ok. done with the cheese.

    Now back to the topic of the post. Nurses who kill. How many people might die because one person, who knew she was under a medical watch and whose co-worker actually had come down with Ebola, decided to take a trip on a plane. Exposing who knows how many people directly and indirectly.

    When/if those people catch the disease and transmit it to others…..do you think she should be considered a killer just as effectively as if she had pulled the trigger of a gun or opened fire in the airport?.

    Oh…I know…..she didn’t mean it….so that makes it OK?

    Unfortunately, we are going to have to do a very tricky balancing act between people’s rights and freedom and people’s ability to be free to travel around and infect and kill others, which sort of does step on THEIR rights. You know…right to live. and not be infected with a deadly disease.

    The one great fear of government intervention, is that once the government takes over control and intervenes they won’t stop. Like the uninvited house guest who never leaves. However, in a national emergency, which Ebola ‘might’ become, there is a need for a coordinated effort to stop the disease and protect the public’s health.

    A very tricky balancing act indeed.

  4. Your question was not complicated and neither was the article I cited. Maybe you didn’t find the word “rape” but that would be included in the more general “sex-related offenses.”

    “The figures show that 255 commanders were fired since 2005, and that 78 of them were felled by sex-related offenses. A breakdown: 32 in the Army, 25 in the Navy, 11 in the Marine Corps and 10 in the Air Force.”

    Now, if your done with this pathetic attempt to disparage the efforts of the military leadership dealing with this issue, we can get back to the real failure of leadership that exists within civilian leadership.

    Thanks.

  5. Nick: I agree that most hospitals, besides those that have specific infectious disease wings, are unprepared.

    I remember a CDC representative explaining how it would actually make us less safe to close our borders. If they had quarantined immediately during the initial outbreak, it would not have become a countrywide, and then region wide, and now global problem.

  7. Doc, LOL. Yup, a known tactic to divert the topic, talk sports endlessly one comment after another. Good ‘catch’!

  8. Rapists need to have their weenies cut off and tied around their necks like a necklace while they are tied to a phone pole in downtown busy intersection for five hours or until someone lets them loose. This is why every woman should have a brother or a son with a knife and a rifle. God made rifles for a reason.

  9. Nick, I’m fine with dropping the issue failure of the military to protect men and women from rape.

    Would you prefer we discuss baseball? How about cheese? Maybe your uncle’s restaurant?

  10. Here’s a great comment from someone over at Instapundit: ” Smack –

    So now we have 2 nurses infected effectively wasting their experience and training for, hopefully, only the foreseeable future. We have a hospital that committed hundreds of thousands of dollars in treatment resources and is now looking at the shut-down of a portion of its operational capacity. We have nearly 70 experienced and trained hospital personal on quarantine shut-down due to their exposure. All this for a person that, but for the administration’s intransigence, would have never gotten here to infect anyone if they had simply imposed reasonable travel restrictions…which they still have not done. American citizens are now literally being physically harmed due to this administration’s craven politically correct clap-trap.

    What happens when one of our healthcare workers contracts this virus and has children at home? Are going to continue to roll the dice and hope that only child-less healthcare workers contract the virus? There is, or I should say there used to be, a point at which the political was subsumed by reality. Unfortunately, it appears that from the top to bottom, from inside the Whitehouse to the Executive Agencies, our political “leaders” are incapable of separating the political from the real-world obligations which accompany their station.

    We live in serious times but unfortunately we are governed by fundamentally un-serious people.”

    Can any moderator moderate my 2:05 comment, as it had three links and was suspect? Thanks in advance.

  11. So, Olly. Now that you understand that I’m talking about rape – not ethical ‘lapses’, how many officers that have ignored sexual attacks within their ranks have been terminated?

  15. I’m talking rape, Olly. Not ‘personal ethics’. You know. Women who were raped. Men who were raped and were not protected by their superior officers. Not men and women that had affairs.

  16. http://harvardpolitics.com/united-states/quest-military-sexual-assault-reform/

    Excerpt:
    The underreporting of sexual assault and the all-too-light punishments for convicted offenders are problems compounded by the pervasiveness of backlash against victims who do file reports. Many survivors explain that they are met with retribution for speaking out. In an interview with the HPR, Nancy Parrish, president of the military sexual assault survivors advocacy group Protect Our Defenders, said, “The victim is often victimized twice—once when they are raped and then when they are disbelieved or retaliated against. Too many victims are discharged due to minor infractions or being diagnosed with an errant medical diagnosis, such as personality disorder.” In fact, according to POD, 47 percent of victims who chose not to report the sexual assault did so out of fear of retaliation.

  17. Doc, yup that is true. I have a friend ( from Minnestota) who is working with the Navy to implement a new way of dealing with rape. She will be contacting my (Navy) daughter to assist her in getting together a focus group, some time in the near future. Exciting stuff, hope it changes the culture and the outcomes.

  20. Sure, Olly. I’ll accept your enormous caveat..

    Now about all those who could have their “careers terminated tomorrow if they didn’t take action today”? How many of those officers have been terminated?

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