A nurse in western Germany has been sentenced to life in prison after admitting to injecting patients with powerful sedatives during his night shifts. He wasn’t easing their pain; he was trying to have a quiet night at work.
The 44-year-old man, whose name has not been released under German privacy laws, worked at a hospital in Würselen, near Aachen. Prosecutors said he routinely gave high doses of morphine and midazolam, a sedative sometimes used in lethal injections, to elderly or terminally ill patients between December 2023 and May 2024. Ten of them died. Twenty-seven more nearly did.
According to the BBC, investigators believe he may have harmed even more patients during his career. Authorities have begun exhuming bodies to determine how many other deaths might be linked to him.
Nurse Who Killed 10 Patients to Lighten Workload Sentenced to Life in Prison
The nurse told the court he only wanted his patients to sleep. “Sleep is the best medicine,” he reportedly said, claiming he hadn’t realized the drugs would be lethal. Prosecutors described his behavior as “playing master of life and death” and said he showed “irritation” toward patients who needed the most care. He’d been working at the hospital since 2020 and, by all accounts, seemed indifferent to the suffering around him.
The court in Aachen found him guilty of 10 murders and 27 attempted murders, citing a “particular severity of guilt”—a legal phrase in Germany that bars early release after the standard 15-year minimum. He’s serving a life sentence without parole, but can still appeal.
Investigators said his goal wasn’t complex or ideological. He wasn’t trying to ease pain or commit mercy killings. He just wanted quieter shifts. The drugs, administered without authorization, sedated his patients long enough for him to get through the night without being bothered.
The case has drawn comparisons to Niels Högel, a former nurse convicted in 2019 of murdering 85 patients at hospitals in northern Germany. Högel injected heart medication into victims to trigger medical emergencies, then tried to resuscitate them to impress colleagues.
Germany has seen several cases involving caregivers abusing their medical access, prompting calls for stricter oversight and more psychological screening in healthcare hiring.
For now, prosecutors are focused on the exhumations. Each new test could add another name to the list. What began as an investigation into laziness has become something closer to a horror story about control, power, and the fragile trust between patients and the people meant to keep them alive.
The post Nurse Who Killed 10 Patients to Lighten Workload Sentenced to Life in Prison appeared first on VICE.
