http://therealsingapore.com/content/pinoy-nurse-kills-3-uk-hospital-patients-poisons-18
A male nurse murdered three patients by putting poison in saline drips and leaving them as ‘ticking timebombs’ for other medics to administer, a court heard yesterday.
Victorino Chua is said to have poisoned 21 people ‘completely at random’ by lacing the drips with insulin then waiting for other nurses and doctors to unwittingly give them to patients.
One of the survivors was left with a serious brain injury.
Eventually, a pattern began to emerge and Chua, 49, was ‘the common denominator’ in all the cases, the court heard.
Prosecutor Peter Wright QC said it was a ‘lottery’ which patients were harmed because the drips were unknowingly administered by others.
‘In the vast majority of cases, the poisoner seems to have contaminated products completely at random,’ he told the court.
As the victims became critically ill, Chua is said to have covered up his ‘handiwork’ by falsely recording that they were fine.
In one case, he claimed a victim was ‘comfortable’ when in reality he was close to death after being poisoned with insulin, a jury was told.
Mr Wright said Chua’s motive was hard to determine with precision, adding that ‘only the person responsible could ever know why they would embark on such conduct’.
He said the nurse had ‘turned from a man who had dedicated his life to caring for others, to harming them’.
Filipino-born Chua faces 36 charges over an alleged poisoning campaign that spread panic through a busy NHS hospital between the summer of 2011 and January 2012.
They include the murders of Tracey Arden, 44, Arnold Lancaster, 71, and Derek Weaver, 83, none of whom recovered after allegedly being poisoned with insulin.
Chua is also accused of altering drug dosages, in one case putting an 86-year-old’s life at risk by changing her prescription chart after arguing with her daughter about her care.
Full Report :
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...-18-contaminated-saline-bags-court-hears.html
