One 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
Great comments from the private business owners. If only we had some more govt. employees, attorneys, and academics like those good ol’ days.
Ebola is just the latest health scare fostered by incomplete information, sensationalized cases, and profit-driven Big Pharma. In Coventry an entire clinic was shutdown over ebola. Overreation? Yes say the experts:
http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/coventry-news/closure-city-health-centre-due-7932197
Researchers looking for grant money need a good ol’ fashioned panic too:
“Doctors and researchers who had something to gain from the swine flu pandemic in 2009 were more likely to overestimate the urgency of the outbreak and to recommend antiviral medications than completely independent researchers, according to a new analysis by researchers at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
The study, published Monday in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, suggests that journalists and the researchers themselves should do a better job of divulging conflicts of interests in public health stories. The analysis looked at 425 articles published in the United Kingdom about swine flu between April and July 2009. Academics who had connections to the pharmaceutical industry or had other conflicts of industry were six times more likely than those without conflicts to be quoted making risk assessments that were higher than those made by those official agencies such as the UK Department of Health.
“Those scientists quoted who had connections to the pharmaceutical industry were much more likely to say the outbreak would affect millions of people or something like that,” said Kate Mandeville, lead author of the paper.”
~motherboard.vice.com
ODS. Obama Depression Syndrome. Prozac folks. Obamacare covers it.
Mespo – swine flue does not have this mortality rate, and does not cause massive hemorrhagic internal bleeding.
I agree that Ebola protocols should assume that it’s airborne. I don’t see how it’s not, once a patient becomes so advanced that they’re coughing up blood and mucous.
DBQ – it’s like antibiotic resistant TB. If someone refuses to remain quarantined, the government forcibly quarantines them. At some point, it’s criminal negligence for an infected person to refuse to remain quarantined.
Steg – the filter only allows 2 links. If you have more than that to share, break it up into multiple posts. 🙂
The White House is not the Army Corps of Engineers, either, and yet the handling of Hurricane Katrina was rightly a criticism of Bush.
docmadison – do you hate the military because of sexual assaults? Do you also hate college campuses? Because basically anywhere that people in their 20s congregate has the highest incident rate of sexual assault. I recall when I went to college, there was the Rape Trail and Rape Hill we were warned against walking at night. There were Rape Phones where you had to only push a single, huge button to get an emergency operator. They were spaced apart throughout campus. Seriously. A single button, because rape is such a problem on a college campus that you can’t even dial 3 stinking #s. Then there were the prohibitions against girls going alone to frat parties. There was a whole long list of rules.
So it’s not like this is only a problem in the military, and everyone else is just singing Cumbaya and taking feminist classes.
On another note, Liberia is predicted to have 10,000 new cases a week soon by infectious disease experts. So, it’s super that people find this so funny.
When I was in college we worked on modeling for outbreaks in modern times. It was a pretty grim picture, with global airline travel. There is a very small window of time in which to contain an outbreak before it becomes an epidemic. Best not to waste time . . .
Jack,
In the article, she never took personal responsibility either.
Good article Elaine, thank you.
Olly,
I saw that news piece about Dr. Nancy Snyderman yesterday. How incredibly selfish of her. She was in self-monitored quarantine, but just had to have something from a local restaurant….so screw everybody else!
NBC needs to can her.
Regarding private hospitals not caring for patients as well as the military/government, I direct you to Exhibit A, the VA Scandal, with a 9 month waiting list to be seen, and patients dying on waiting lists.
Yep.That’s definitely more caring.
I’m a military brat. I have horror stories from military hospitals. Yes, there are some great providers, but typically the best doctors are in private practice.
Then you have Exhibit B, patient choice (which Obamacare destroyed.) When patients are free to choose another hospital, another insurance plan, and another doctor, poor performers lose business. Whatever shall we do when it’s all the VA paradigm? Hope you have a good book to read while you wait for your appointment.
Olly,
Read the article that I posted a link to and an excerpt from at 3:19 pm.
Silly me. Expecting to see the word “rape” in your defense of the military leadership protecting subordinates.
No. We’re left with Navy apologist guy, Olly, telling me the ‘sexual offenses’ and ‘ethical lapses’ must include assault and battery rape.
Everybody….. concentrate on Olly’s words: ‘maybe you don’t find the word rape’
Maybe you don’t find the word rape, because these officers were not terminated because they ignored subordinates that were raped.
So, Olly. Of the 255 termination cases, how many were for ignoring rape?
The mortality rate is 70%. We DON’T know if it’s airborne yet for a fact, however it should be treated as if it were, IMO.
DBQ – you are correct. There’s a whole roomful of people, including Obama, who have mishandled this.
Ken – I agree that soldiers would rather fight ISIS than Ebola. My friend’s husband was just deployed.
Nick – there have been mistakes and inaccurate information that will go down in history. Obama claimed it was highly unlikely that Ebola would reach here, and there was no need for a travel restriction, days before the Ebola index case here. He frittered away the time we had when he should have been preparing. The CDC said direct contact was needed for transmission, when we knew that was not true. It said hospitals could handle this, and we know that’s not true. The Dallas hospital failed to isolate this index case and sent him home first. And an infected nurse got on a plane.
This is becoming an episode of What Not to Do in a National Emergency.
Just for reference, the survivability of this disease is less than 50%. The school year has started. If this dread disease gets into the public school system, it will spread rapidly to our most vulnerable people, children.
As a mom, I am not very happy with Obama’s and the CDC’s crisis management skills. The window of opportunity for Obama to do anything to contain this is closing.
Anyone who denies that Obama’s statement about how unlikely it will be for Ebola to come here, and how impossible it will be to spread here, is going to haunt him is in denial themselves. I don’t blame all the world’s problems on Obama, but he dropped the ball here. Hopefully he can pick it up.
DBQ,
What concerns me with government information is they never withhold good news; especially if it reflects well on the leadership. So, what we have been told so far is what we should reasonably expect to be the extent of the good. And that’s not saying much.
Mespo, and it’s all Obama’s fault. Don’tcha know?