Bremen, Germany —
A male nurse jailed for life 2 years ago for killing 2 patients murdered at least 90 patients, and possibly twice as many, police said yesterday.
Nurse Niels HOEGEL, 40, was jailed in February 2015 for 2 murders and 4 counts of attempted murder or causing bodily harm on ICU patients at the DELMENHORST Hospital near the northern city of Bremen.
Police said on Monday that forensic experts had exhumed and analysed more than 130 additional bodies and had found evidence of a vastly higher death toll at 2 hospitals where HOEGEL worked from 1999 to 2005.
The death toll is unique in the history of the German Republic said the chief police investigator adding that HOEGEL killed “without a discernible pattern” and preyed on those especially in critical condition.
HOEGEL has admitted to injecting patients with drugs that can cause heart failure or circulatory collapse so he could then try to revive them and, when successful, shine as a saviour before his peers.
MEAG COMMENT: Could this happen in Australia? Yes. Has it happened in Australia? Yes.