Work Overload: German Nurse Jailed For Life Over Murder Of 10 Patients

A court in Aachen, Germany, has sentenced a palliative care nurse to life imprisonment for the murder of 10 patients and attempted murder of 27 others at a hospital in Wuerselen, Western Germany.

According to AFP, the unnamed nurse was found guilty of injecting his mostly elderly patients with excessive doses of morphine and sedatives between December 2023 and May 2024.

Prosecutors said the convicted nurse committed the acts to reduce his workload during overnight shifts.

According to court documents, the man who began working at the hospital in 2020 after qualifying as a nursing professional in 2007, displayed “irritation” and lack of empathy toward patients needing intensive care.

Prosecutors accused him of acting like a “master of life and death.” The court ruled that the crimes carried a “particular severity of guilt,” meaning the convict will not be eligible for early release after serving 15 years, as is customary in Germany.

The German court also held that the convicted nurse retained the right to appeal the verdict.

Authorities arrested the nurse in 2024 after patterns of suspicious deaths emerged. Investigators have since launched exhumations to determine whether more patients may have been killed, raising the possibility of further charges.

The case has drawn comparisons to that of Niels Högel, a former nurse who was sentenced to life in 2019 over the murder of 85 patients at two hospitals in northern Germany.

Högel was widely regarded as the country’s most prolific serial killer.