29 September 2008 – Woodstock, IL, USA According to The Chicago Tribune, 130 page report of the investigation of the Illinois Department of Healthand Human Services contributes that the improper us of drugs contributed to the death of at least five patients of the McHenry County Nursing Home in 2006. Two nurses were indicted in April for causing the patients death in connection with this case. Although neither has been charged with murder, the report makes a strong case that the killing of these patients was planned and intentional.At the time of the original charges, prosecutors said that they did not have enough evidence to charge the women with murder. The Chicago Tribune reports:
Marty Himebaugh, a Lake in the Hills resident and a licensed practical nurse, was charged with four counts of criminal neglect of a long-term care resident, one count of obtaining morphine by fraud, and one count of unlawful distribution of a controlled substance.
Penny Whitlock, a former director of nursing at the facility and a Woodstock city resident, was charged with five counts of criminal neglect of a long-term care resident and two counts of obstructing justice.
Both women have pleaded not guilty in McHenry County Circuit Court.
The report includes alleged statements made by a nurse identified only as E14. In the case of a 56-year-old man who had Down syndrome, she is quoted as telling a co-worker shortly before his death.
Those people aren’t meant to live that long. They are meant to die in their teens and I’m going to help him along.
In regard to another patient who died in the nursing home:
She won’t make it through the day, I made sure of that.
More generally, E14 says:
I will make sure they get enough medications to be gone, I will take care of it.
In one case, E14 tells a coworker that a patient will be dead in half an hour.
Penny Whitlock, the supervisor, is reported to have told Himebaugh:
I do not care if you play the angel of death, just don’t let me know about it.
The entire report is available as PDF document courtesy of the Daily Herald.
The indictment against Ms. Whitlock in this case were upheld by the court on 29 September 2008, after her defense argued that the theory under which the charge was laid could not be supported by law. The charge was based on the logic that a supervisor who knows or seriously suspects an employee of abuse or endangering a patient but fails to exercise action to protect other patients by allowing them to be exposed to that danger. This is clearly reasonable when a supervisor has a responsibility to protect patients.
In my opinion, however, if the statements made by these nurses can be verified, the nurse who is alleged to have killed these patients should be charged with attempted murder or murder or both. If it can be shown that the medication overdoses caused the death, the charge should be murder. If, as is often the case for debilitated patients, the overdose cannot be shown to be the cause of death, the charge should be attempted murder.
Tags: Angel of Death, Down syndrome
