Guardian Unlimited | World Latest | Nurse Who Claimed 40 Deaths Is Charged


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      From the Associated Press 






      Nurse Who Claimed 40 Deaths Is Charged 

      Tuesday March 30, 2004 5:16 AM
      EASTON, Pa. (AP) - A nurse who claims to have killed as many as 40 
      patients over 16 years was charged Monday in the death of a 78-year-old 
      patient in Pennsylvania. 
      Charles Cullen was charged with criminal homicide in the 1998 death of a 
      retired steel worker who died from an overdose of heart medication three 
      days after being admitted to Easton Hospital for treatment of seizures. 
      Cullen, who is also charged in the deaths of two patients at a hospital in 
      New Jersey, worked the night shift two of the three days Ottomar Schramm 
      was at the medical center. 
      Schramm's daughter, Kristina Toth, said she remembers a male nurse giving 
      her father a shot, then trying to talk her out of asking for an autopsy 
      after his death. She said Monday that she can't be sure if it was Cullen 
      who spoke to her, but Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli 
      said there was only one other male nurse in the unit. 
      Cullen's lawyer, Johnnie Mask, declined to comment. Easton Hospital 
      officials did not immediately return a phone message. 
      According to New Jersey prosecutors, Cullen has admitted killing 30 to 40 
      severely ill patients in Pennsylvania and New Jersey since 1987 by 
      injecting them with drugs. 
      Morganelli said Cullen has not implicated himself in Schramm's death. 






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