By Brendan Oliver Bergh
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

BRASILIA, Brazil – Despicable, or misguided? These are the questions some in Brazil are asking as Dr. Virginia Soares de Souza was removed from her Brazil hospital on accusations of murder. The Brazilian health ministry alleges that de Souza killed seven terminally ill patients at the Evangelical Hospital in Curitiba. Why? To free up beds in her hospital for new patients.

De Souza maintains her innocence, claiming that she is being falsely accused. Despite her claims of innocence a few of her statements collected by wiretap indicate that something subversive was going on in Curitiba. “I want to clear the intensive care unit. It’s making me itch.” Not on itself conclusive of serial killing by euthanize, authorities came to suspect de Souza of injecting patients with a drug cocktails and tampering with respirators after nurses began reporting   suspicions that their patients were poisoned.

While the investigations currently has attributed the deaths of seven patients to her actions, investigators are looking at the medical records of some 300 other patients who were treated under de Souza’s supervision and care.

Authorities indicated that de Souza recruited doctors to help her administer drug cocktails of anesthetics and sedatives in order to alter the chemical balance within her patients before they succumbed to death. Beyond de Souza, another seven health care professionals have been charged with the case. Their actions, according to prosecutors, was to euthanize the victims against the wishes of patients and their families, all in the name of clearing up the clutter and over capacity of patients within the ICU.

The investigation is going back seven years, with doctors analyzing the medical charts of more than 1,700 patients. Investigators allege that in cases where de Souza did not herself prescribe the drug cocktails, she ordered underlings to alter respirators, potentially speeding up their untimely deaths.

While society debates the merits of assisted suicide and euthanasia, Virginia Soares de Souza does not have the legal protections that Dr. Kevorkian argued. If convicted de Souza will be facing multiple murder charges ant the possibility of a serial killer moniker.

Dr. Mario Lobato, the doctor in charge of the investigation has told reporters that “they all have the same [M.O.], the same relationship between the drug and the death,” he continued that some of the victims were still conscious and until the time moment of their deaths.

For more information, please see:

CNN – Brazilian Doctor Killed 7 Patients To Free Up Hospital Beds, Police Say – 29 March 2013

Latino Fox News – Dr. Death? Brazilian Doctor Killed Patients To Free Up Hospital Beds, Police Say – 28 March 2013

Christin Science Monitor – Doctor Killed 300 Patients? Doctor Felt ‘All Powerful ‘ Say Prosecutors – 28 March 2013

Digital Journal – Brazilian Doctor May Have Killed Hundreds – 27 March 2013