Fear of litigation led to hospital inaction regarding the killer nurse:
During his 16-year nursing career, Cullen was able to move from one hospital to another – to 10 medical facilities in all – because fear of litigation prevented those hospitals from giving him a bad reference. Co-workers observed his strange behavior, and caught him in rooms of patients with medications that weren’t appropriate. But they didn’t know he was murdering people, and couldn’t prove that he was doing something illegal. So the hospitals would eventually let him go, and, when the next hospital in line asked for a reference, merely gave the stock response of all employers nowadays: “We confirm that he worked here from this to that date.”
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{ 8 comments }
litigious patients eventually get what’s coming to them…
Was this guy sued by these patient families, or is it just physicians that people go after?
No one was sued. No one has even stated a theory under which the Nursing Board or these hospitals could have been sued.
Cullen was arrested for murder, both in New Jersey and Penna. He plead guilty to 29 murders, and has been sentenced to 11 life terms in prison. The victims’ families were allowed to make statements at his sentencing hearings.
Did you think he got off scot-free?
I didn’t ask if he was sentenced to prison…I asked if he was sued…
How come you sodomites don’t sue nurses? Even when a nurse kills your family members you take it lying down, but when it’s a physician you go running to 1-800-sodomite. What pathetic losers…
“No one was sued. No one has even stated a theory under which the Nursing Board or these hospitals could have been sued.”
Actually, suits ARE pending. The hospitals are “responsible” for the medical actions of their employees – AND for hiring this murderer without doing adequate background checks….at least, that’s what will be claimed in court….as far as I know, though, Cullen HIMSELF hasn’t, or won’t, be named in any of the suits.
Oh, and nurses can be sued, as can surgical residents and any physician extenders….the hospital carries malpractice insurance for any of these personnel whom it employs…
surgical residents are physicians. I have never heard of a nurse being sued. In spite of this, everytime you are called for something in the hospital, they feel the need to cover their ample asses by writing (Dr. So-and-So notified of…)
“Actually, suits ARE pending. The hospitals are “responsible” for the medical actions of their employees – AND for hiring this murderer without doing adequate background checks”
Wasn’t referring to that suit, which is to be expected. I was referring to the alleged lawsuit that this guy would have filed against a former employer that the board and the former employers are trying to claim kept them from giving a warning. How often do those happen, and has there ever been one where the plaintiff had this kind of record?
Or are they simply trying to blame someone else for their own inaction?
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