by Emilee Gaebler
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America
MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay – On March 19, two male nurses in Uruguay were charged with the murders of 16 patients and held without bail after confessing their guilt in front of Judge Rolando Vomero. The names of the two men have not been released to the press at this time. Instead they have been simply identified as J.A.A. age 46, and M.P.G. age 39.
The two nurses do not appear to have been working together. J.A.A. worked at the Asociación Española, a private caregiving facility, where he admits to killing 11 patients. M.P.G. was employed at the Hospital Maciel, where he admitted to causing the deaths of another 5 patients. A single female nurse was also arraigned with them on charges of covering up their deeds.
The charges against the two men are for the deaths of at least 16 patients at this time. Reports have surfaced that there are more than that so investigators are currently looking in depth at patient’s records for the two hospitals. Public news outlets in Uruguay believe that dozens more patients were killed by the men. At a recent news conference one of the men said he had killed at least 50 patients and the other said he had lost count long ago of how many he had killed.
The hospital’s spokespeople and the health minister of the government are stressing that there is substantial rebuilding now required to instill faith and credibility back in to the health system. The first step is to establish just how extensive this operation was.
Ines Massiotti, a lawyer for one of the nurses, stressed that both her client and the other nurse acted out of pity due to their extensive years working in the intensive care units and being exposed to death and suffering.
“My client is fully aware of his actions. He fully confessed in front of the judge [and] prosecutor, and his defense is he did it out of mercy,” said Massiotti.
Attorney Santiago Clavijo echoed a similar statement noting that these were not “vicious” killings but rather done to stop the pain they witnessed the patient’s experiencing. Prosecutors contest this noting that many of the patients targeted were not terminally ill. In fact, one of the victims had release papers signed the day before she was killed.
Investigators believe that the two were killing patients in a number of ways, including; overdosing patients with the drug morphine and injecting air bubbles into their blood streams. Health officials expressed profound concern for the situation and stressed that they would be fully cooperative during the investigation.
For more information, please see;
Latin American Herald Tribune – Nurses Accused of Killing 16 in Uruguay Hospitals – 21 March 2012
CNN – 2 Nurses in Uruguay Charged in Slayings of Patients – 20 March 2012
BBC – Nurses Confess to Killing 16 Patients at Uruguay Hospital – 19 March 2012
CBS – Uruguay Nurses Charged with Murdering 16 with Morphine – 19 March 2012
Daily Mail Reporter – Two Nurses Arrested in Uruguay After Poisoning 200 Hospital Patients in Mercy Killings – 19 March 2012
