Lawsuit alleges Pittsburgh-area nurse accused of killing 2 patients with insulin caused another death
LOWER BURRELL, Pa. (KDKA) -- The family of a woman who died at a Lower Burrell nursing home filed a wrongful death lawsuit against a nurse who is already facing charges for giving three patients lethal doses of insulin, killing two of them.
Marianne Bower's family said she was also a victim of Heather Pressdee and the administrators of Belair Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center knew about her prior employment experience and how she was allegedly fired from several other similar businesses.
While she was there, according to the lawsuit, Pressdee spent a lot of time with the victim, making other nurses suspicious. Eventually those nurses reported their findings to the facility's management who failed, according to the lawsuit, to do anything, resulting in Bower's death on Sept. 28, 2021, allegedly from an overdose of insulin from Pressdee.
The law firm representing the family said there were many red flags surrounding Pressdee and the company should have known something.
"She was either terminated or voluntarily resigned from these six prior facilities due to abuse towards staff or residents and yet she was hired in April of 2021 to be put in a management position," said Robert N. Peirce III, the family's attorney.
Peirce said Bower, who was 67, suffered multiple sclerosis and was sent to the facility in Lower Burrell for care. It was initially believed she died of respiratory arrest but it was eventually determined that she died of excessive insulin in her system. Pressdee was allegedly her nurse.
Peirce said Bower wasn't a diabetic and alleged that Pressdee confessed to giving her insulin.
"We do not believe the proper checks were performed and had they been performed, this situation would not have occurred," Peirce said.
Pressdee was charged earlier this year with two counts of homicide and one count of attempted murder after the Pennsylvania attorney general's office said she gave three patients at Quality Life Services in Chicora lethal doses of insulin, killing two of them and sending another to the hospital. Investigators said two of the men were not diabetic.
The 73-year-old victim who survived was given the dose in August of 2022 and the two others, ages 83 and 55 died, in December of 2022, the attorney general's office said.
No charges have been announced in Bower's death yet.
Belair Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center declined comment on the lawsuit.