In the five months that Jennifer Ann Hall has been a respiratory therapist at Hedrick Medical Center, Missouri Rural Hospital has experienced 18 “blue code” incidents, an alarming increase in cardiac arrest cases for the hospital, which previously on average one per year. To a police investigator.
Nine of them died and nine recovered. Twenty years later, Hall was charged this month with first -degree murder in one of the deaths – 75 -year -old Fern Franco.
Livingston County Attorney Adam Warren, who started the investigation 10 years ago, said Franco died from a lethal dose of succinylcholine – a pain reliever that paralyzes the respiratory muscles – and analgesic morphine. The prosecutor did not indicate a possible motive and did not explain why the investigation took a decade.
Hall’s attorney, Matt O’Connor, said he was innocent and as a respiratory therapist he had no access to succinylcholine, morphine or other drugs. He said Holly had been a scapegoat for Hedrick’s death since he was released in 2005.
It is unclear whether Hall will be charged with further murder in Hedrick’s death in 2002. Warren declined to be interviewed and Livingston County Sheriff Steve Cox did not respond to phone messages or emails for comment.
Franco’s granddaughter April Franco hopes investigators will reach the other victims to the end.
“Just for the sake of other families,” said Franco, 44, of Kansas City, Missouri. “They have been waiting for answers for 20 years. It’s up to them to find an answer in my grandmother’s case.”
Holly, 41, is in jail without bail. O’Connor said he was looking for Bond so Hall could undergo chemotherapy for leukemia.
He began working for Hedrick in December 2001. The small hospital is located in Chilicott, 90 miles (145 kilometers) northeast of Kansas City, population 9,100.
A statement from Chillicothe official Brian Schmidt said the alleged cause of the sudden heart failure at Hedrick Hall – Code Blues – was “alarming.”
Hospital officials were warned about Hall’s concerns, but “went out of their way to hide it” to avoid poor publicity, said Scott Lindley, the county courthouse. No criminal investigation was initiated at the time.
In 2010, the lawsuit was filed on behalf of the relatives of five deceased patients, naming the hospital and the company that now operates it, St. Louis. Lucas Health System. The Missouri Supreme Court dismissed the lawsuit in 2019 and ruled it was filed after the statute of limitations expired.
St. said. Lucas Healthcare System in a statement that it underwent surgery for Hedrick more than a year after his death.
“We are only interested in the facts and await the final decision of the investigation,” the note wrote.
Warren, elected public prosecutor in 2010, said the investigation began in 2012. He said he did not believe “a thorough investigation has been completed”.
The dead are people of different ages and levels of health.
World War II veteran Charles O’Hara, 88, was hospitalized on Feb. 2, 2002 to be diagnosed with high fever, vomiting and anxiety and died two days later. Retired conservation agent Koval Gani is 82 years old.
But David Harper is only 37 years old. He was taken to the hospital with pneumonia, but the court said he was fine and would be discharged. Died March 20, 2002.
Similarly, Shirley Eller, 49, came home a day after being treated for pneumonia when she fell and died on March 9, 2002.
The lawsuit alleges Eller’s death was related to “natural causes” as well as other deaths. Eller’s sister Helen Pittman found this puzzle. Eller smokes, but otherwise she is healthy and active.
“It was a shock,” Pittman said. “Only now did he find out. “Shirley is great.”
Franco was also taken to the hospital for pneumonia. Hall and another employee, identified only as “JA” in the probable cause statement, were found dead on May 18, 2002.
“Hall’s victim was a sick, frail old woman who relied on Hall for physical illness in a medical facility,” Schmidt wrote. He said succinylcholine caused “terrible drowning deaths” while Franco was awake.
Holly went on administrative leave three days after Franco’s death and the blue code incidents have “returned to historical frequency,” Schmidt said in a statement.
Holly was released a few months later, but not because of the patient’s death. O’Connor said he was released after hospital officials learned he was on trial in connection with a fire at another small Missouri hospital, Cass Regional Medical Center in Harrisonville, where he previously worked. He was free on appeal when he took a job at Chilicotti and later spent a year behind bars before being tried again in court.
O’Connor called it incomprehensible that Hall was re -identified for a crime he did not commit.
“Going through here was horrible,” O’Connor said. Going through it twice is a recurring nightmare.
He said Hall’s proximity to patients should come as no surprise as it is a small hospital with small staff.
Twenty years after the death of his younger sister, Pitman, 79, is not ready for a verdict, but he wants investigators to continue investigating Shirley Eller’s death.
“It’s hard for me to believe that people can be bad,” Pittman said. “But I think they can.”
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News researcher Ronda Schaffner from New York contributed.
Source: Huffpost
I’m Liza Grey, an experienced news writer and author at the Buna Times. I specialize in writing about economic issues, with a focus on uncovering stories that have a positive impact on society. With over seven years of experience in the news industry, I am highly knowledgeable about current events and the ways in which they affect our daily lives.