In the first instance, the Pécs District Court imposed a 14-year prison sentence on Gy. B. Gy., who killed an incapacitated patient in December 2022, according to the court announcement.
The man worked as a nurse at an internal medicine clinic, where the injured, elderly woman was lying in the Covid+ ward, helpless. The closed ward could only be accessed through a lock, the woman was treated for pneumonia caused by Covid-19. Based on his laboratory results on December 17, the doctor on duty diagnosed a potassium deficiency, so he asked the nurse on duty to give him 6 grams of potassium by infusion.
The nurse properly prepared the potassium injections three times in 20 ml, twice in 25 ml and once in 10 ml doses in syringes, and then she placed the sealed syringes in front of the locking gate of the Covid+ closed ward, taking them to the patient after taking the necessary precautions. However, the pulmonologist on duty called the nurse for a visit, who asked the defendant to check the status of the patient’s infusion.
The man took advantage of the fact that no one was paying attention to him, so he took the prepared syringes and injected 25 ml of potassium chloride twice, for a total of 50 ml, directly into the blood vessel through the central venous cannula of the injured right femoral vein, alone in the ward.
The head nurse went back to the lock after 15 minutes, where she noticed that the syringes were missing. He immediately went to the Covid+ department, where he saw the defendant working around the patient’s central venous catheter. The last 10ml syringe was still on the table.
The nurse alerted the doctor on duty, but by then the patient had already died of acute heart failure caused by potassium poisoning, and they could not save his life.
The public prosecutor took note of the verdict, but the defendant and his lawyer filed an appeal against it, so the court’s decision is not final.
Tags: nurse poisoned helpless covid patient potassium fourteen years
