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A West Virginia nursing assistant admitted to intentionally killing 7 patients with fatal doses of insulin

Jul 17, 2020, 00:14 IST
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This Louis A. Johnson VA Medical Center in Clarksburg, W.Va., is seen on Tuesday, July 14, 2020.Associated Press/Gene J. Puskar
  • A former nursing assistant has pleaded guilty to murdering seven patients at a Department of Veterans Affairs hospital in West Virginia in 2017 and 2018.
  • Reta Mays, 46, pleaded guilty to intentionally administering fatal doses of insulin to the patients, though she was not authorized to give any medications to the men at all.
  • She administered the insulin as she sat with patients alone during her night shifts, according to her plea agreement.
  • Mays faces a maximum penalty of life imprisonment and a $250,000 fine for each murder.
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A former nursing assistant has admitted to intentionally causing the deaths of seven patients at a Department of Veterans Affairs hospital in West Virginia by administering fatal doses of insulin.

The nursing assistant, 46-year-old Reta Mays, signed a plea agreement saying she was guilty of seven counts of second-degree murder, and one count of assault with intent to commit murder.

The plea agreement describes how each patient suffered a "severe hypoglycemic event" during Mays' night shifts when she sat with them alone in their hospital wards. According to the agreement, Mays "willfully, deliberately, and without authorization" administered the insulin to the patients, causing seven of the deaths.

Mays also administered the unauthorized insulin to an eighth patient, who later died, but a medical examiner did not determine that insulin was the "but-for cause" of death, according to the plea agreement.

Mays "has admitted to actions that ended the lives of several military veterans who served our country honorably," US Attorney Bill Powell said in a statement. "Our investigation never lost sight of each of these lives and the sacrifices these men made for their country."

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U.S. Attorney Bill Powell, center, announces at a news conference Tuesday, July 14, 2020 in Clarksburg, W.Va.Associated Press/Gene J. Puskar

The murders occurred over the span of roughly a year, with the first death occurring on July 20, 2017, and the last on June 8, 2018.

The patients she killed were identified as Robert Edge Sr., Robert Kozul, Archie Edgell, George Shaw, W.A.H., Felix McDermott, and Raymond Golden. All were military veterans.

"Ms. Mays knew or should have known that the victims of the offenses were vulnerable victims due to age and physical and/or mental condition," the plea agreement said.

Mays administered the insulin as she sat with patients alone during her night shifts

Mays' job as a nursing assistant entailed "measuring patients' vital signs, documenting patients' intake and output, testing patients' blood glucose levels with a glucometer, and sitting one-on-one with patients who required close observation," the plea agreement said.

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She was never at any time authorized to give patients any medications, according to the document.

The Office of the Inspector General for the Department of Veterans Affairs released a statement saying agents identified Mays as a person of interest within days of learning of the suspicious deaths at the hospital.

The Louis A. Johnson VA Medical Center in Clarksburg, W.Va., is seen on Tuesday, July 14, 2020.Associated Press/Gene J. Puskar

Investigators conducted roughly 350 interviews, issued more than 60 subpoenas and search warrants, and reviewed 1,200 timecards from employees at the facility and 670,000 employee emails. Investigators also arranged for bodies of the victims to be exhumed and given autopsies, the statement said.

Mays faces a maximum penalty of life imprisonment and a $250,000 fine for each murder, and a 20-year sentence for the assault charge, according to court documents.

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Mays is far from the first nurse to be found guilty of murdering patients. A number of other nurses across the US and around the world have been convicted of murdering patients, including Charles Cullen, a nurse who confessed to killing 29 patients in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and Kimberly Saenz, who was convicted of killing five dialysis patients by injecting them with bleach.

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