MONTEVIDEO (Reuters) – Uruguay opened on Monday an inquiry into all the country-intensive care units, then that two nurses were accused of killing at least 16 elderly supposedly them pain-relieving.
Local media said police feared that the fatal victims region 200 and that defendants confessed after finishing with the lives of more than 50 people by injection of air or morphine. A third person was accused of cover-up.
The Ministry of Health reported that it ordered the opening of an audit on the country intensive care units to verify compliance with the sanitary controls that should have prevented the deaths.
“This situation her catalogue as dramatic, very painful and disgusting so it means the presence of killers within the health care team.” I want to be very clear in this regard. “Here there was people who acted with the intention of killing”, told reporters the Under-Secretary of the Ministry of public health, Leonel Briozzo.
Custody nurses, Marcelo Pereira and Ariel Acevedo, 38 and 49 years, working in partnership with private Spanish, while one of them also played in the public hospital Maciel.
The nurses confessed that they ended with the patient’s life by piedad.
“Admitted numerous identical situations, which many people had provided medication that they suffered”, told reporters the judge of the case, Rolando Vomero,.
The judge explained that the victims suffered from serious pathologies, but were not terminally.
Pereira and Acevedo, who knew each other but said ignore the actions of the other, were arrested at the end of last week. Justice announced its processing on Sunday after several months of investigations by the police.
The scandal led to the opposition to demand the resignation of the Minister of health, Jorge Venegas. The Government responded by ensuring that the staff member had their support.
The lawyer of one of the nurses detained, Agnes Massiotti, said that his client suffers from “personality disorders”.
“My client is aware of his actions, he confessed fully before judge, Prosecutor and the defence that he did for mobile of piety,” explained the legal without giving details on how many deaths admitted his defendant.
(Report of Felipe LlambÃas)
