Prosecutors allege that a Pennsylvania nurse murdered two patients and severely injured a third individual in the past year.
According to court records, Heather Pressdee, 40, was dismissed from a dozen workplaces prior to her employment at Quality Life Services, a nursing facility in Butler County, Pennsylvania.
Pennsylvania Nurse Kills Patients with Overdoses of Insulin
On Thursday, Pennsylvania Attorney General Michelle Henry announced that Pressdee was charged with two counts of homicide, one count of attempted murder, one count of aggravated assault, three counts of neglect of a care-dependent person, and three counts of reckless endangerment in connection with incidents that occurred over a four-month period.
According to the prosecution, Pressdee, a registered nurse, administered insulin to two non-diabetic patients and one diabetic patient. The victims, a 55-year-old man and an 83-year-old, died on December 4 and December 25.
The 73-year-old victim who survived emergency hospitalization was given a potentially lethal dose of insulin on August 31. Pressdee was detained on Wednesday at her residence in Natrona Heights, 23 miles northeast of Pittsburgh.
Pressdee's RN license was issued on July 31, 2018, and was set to expire at the end of October. It was renewed in August 2021 and marked as active on Friday's Pennsylvania Department of State website.
According to a criminal complaint, Pressdee was disciplined at eleven former nursing jobs for "abusive behavior toward patients or staff" and either resigned or was fired from each facility. The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported that Pressdee was disciplined at each facility for "abusive behavior toward patients or staff."
According to the affidavit, the first victim died on December 4, 2022, at Butler Memorial Hospital in Butler, Pennsylvania, after being admitted for critically low blood sugar. He had been hospitalized earlier in the fall but was stabilized and returned to the nursing home.
According to the affidavit, he perished a few weeks later after failing to recover, and investigators determined he had been injected with insulin, although the victim was not diabetic.
The second victim was "suitemates" with the first victim, and a communal toilet connected their rooms. According to the affidavit, he was also found with an elevated glucose level the same night and was transported to the same hospital 10 minutes after the first victim.
Per CBS News, his family returned him to the facility, where he passed away on December 25, 2022. According to investigators, he was a non-insulin-dependent diabetic. The third victim was discovered convulsing in his bed at the nursing home on August 31, 2022. He was stabilized and then transferred to a new facility. Pressdee was employed at the nursing home during all three incidents.
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Suspect Worked to Several Western Pennsylvania Facilities
The affidavit states that on May 24, 2023, investigators went to Pressdee's residence in Natrona Heights, Pennsylvania, where she confessed to giving insulin to the victims in the hopes that "they would slip into a coma and just pass away."
Online records indicate that Pressdee is currently incarcerated in Butler County Jail. Since 2018, Pressdee has been employed at eleven distinct facilities.
On May 23, 2022, she was engaged by Quality of Life Services, where she remained employed until November 2022. According to its website, the family-owned healthcare business has ten Pennsylvania locations providing palliative care, specialized nursing care, family home health, and personal care.
Quality Life Services stated that it was "shocked and devastated to discover that the Attorney General's Office has charged Ms. Pressdee with purported illegal activity at our QLS - Chicora facility."
In addition to Quality Life Services, court documents indicate Pressdee worked at the following Western Pennsylvania facilities, according to USA Today:
- Orchards of Saxonburg, Butler
- Encompass Health Rehabilitation Hospital, Harmarville
- Allegheny Valley Hospital, Natrona Heights, Harrison
- UPMC Passavant, McCandless
- Concordia at Rebecca Residence, West Deer
- Guardian Healthcare, operating as Belair Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center, Lower Burrell
- Woodhaven Care Center, Monroeville
- Platinum Ridge Center for Rehabilitation & Healing, Brackenridge
- Orchards of Saxonburg, Butler
- Premier Armstrong Rehabilitation and Nursing Center, Kittanning
- Sunnyview Rehabilitation and Nursing Center, Butler
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