German nurse charged over deaths of 29 patients
A German nurse was today charged over the deaths of 29 of his primarily elderly patients at a Bavarian hospital.
The 26-year-old nurse, whose name was not released, was charged with 16 counts of murder, 12 of manslaughter and one count of mercy killing, prosecutors in the town of Kempten said. He could be sentenced to life imprisonment if convicted.
The deaths at a hospital in the town of Sonthofen took place between March 2003 and July 2004.
Prosecutors say 17 female and 12 male patients aged between 40 and 94 died.
Most of the patients were older than 75 years, but they also included two gravely ill women aged 40 and 47, police said.
The nurse was also charged with five counts of theft for allegedly taking a computer, fax and other items from hospitals in Ludwigsburg, Kempten and Sonthofen.
According to police, he used a mixture of the sedative midazolam, the anaesthetic etomidate, and the muscle relaxant lysthenon to kill the patients.
