Nurse said patient ‘was next to die’ before giving him lethal dose of medicine

A nurse believed to be connected to the deaths of 17 patients bullied a diabetic man before administering a lethal dose of insulin, court documents allege.

Heather Pressdee was charged in connection to 17 deaths, while being accused of mistreating 22 patients with dangerous amounts of insulin, according to the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office.

Nearly a year after the initial charges were brought, the center the former nurse managed now faces a fresh lawsuit from the family of victim Nicholas Cymbol, who died at Sunnyview Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Butler County on May 1, 2023.

Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office

The suit was filed by Cymbol's family attorney, Rob Peirce, who claims 'the center and its operator were negligent, failed to train employees to recognize and report abuse, and failed to remove Pressdee from Cymbol’s care even though she had bullied him and called him a derogatory term,' as per NBC.

Pressdee was accused of intentionally bullying the 43-year-old patient after taking a 'disliking' to him.

Cymbol lived with an anorexic brain injury, causing blindness and neuropathy, requiring him to need constant care, in addition to his diabetes, which caused large swings in his glucose levels.

At the time of his death, Pressdee was working as the manager of the unit where he lived, meaning she was responsible for the care of people living in the home, as well as addressing any issues or complaints anyone had regarding care and conducting internal investigations.

This power was abused according to the family, who claim Pressdee 'routinely insulted, berated, bullied and abused Mr. Cymbol, just as she had done to other residents.'

The lawsuit claims that Pressdee prevented other staff from giving food and water to Cymbol and forcing him to eat alone on numerous different occasions. However, concerns were never followed up, despite the former nurse having already been linked to other suspicious deaths in the home.

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She is said to have told staff he was 'going to be the next one to die anyway,' and yet continued to be responsible for his care up until his untimely death.

As per the Mirror, court documents say Cymbol's nurse recorded his blood sugar level at 167 mg/dL at 6.30am, however, 30 minutes later Pressdee documented his blood sugar had allegedly risen to 380 mg/dL. Following this, the nurse manager went on to inject him with 60 units of insulin, causing his blood sugar to drop, before administering multiple doses of glucagon to reserve the drop, according to the filing.

Staff were reportedly blocked from calling for an ambulance until multiple nurses confronted Pressdee and called paramedics to the scene.

After being treated for hypoglycemia at Butler Memorial Hospital, Cymbol was taken back to Sunnyview where its claimed staff failed to follow instructions to closely monitor his blood sugar and his condition 'gradually declined' until his death on May 1.

Although his death was initially recorded as myocardial infarction, it wasn't until an investigation by the Pennsylvania Office of the Attorney General that Cymbol's family learned of the fatal dose administered by Pressdee.

UNILAD has reached out to Sunnyview Nursing and Rehabilitation Center for comment.

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