A second nursing home that employed a nurse alleged to have killed patients by injecting them with unneeded insulin has been sued by the family of a woman who claim she is an additional part of the larger case.
The family of Marianne Bower has included Belair Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center in Lower Burrell, PA, in its lawsuit, alleging that former employee Heather Pressdee is responsible for her death. The family’s lawsuit claims the facility did not conduct an appropriate background search on Pressdee before hiring her, according to reporting in the Pittsburgh Tribune. Belair operates under parent company Guardian Healthcare, which hired Pressdee in April 2021 as assistant director of Nursing.
The lawsuit alleges that administrators “not only brushed off concerns among staff about the woman, whom some colleagues called ‘the killer nurse,’ but disciplined co-workers who spoke about how Pressdee cared for residents,” the paper reported.
“Several co-workers coined the ‘killer nurse’ moniker in response to the effect they thought Pressdee was having on patients,” the Tribune reported.
A woman who answered the phone at Belair Healthcare on Tuesday declined to comment.
Bower was a 68-year-old grandmother of seven who had multiple sclerosis. She was not diabetic, per reporting, but died of an overdose of insulin, the method that the Pennsylvania Attorney General has said Pressdee used to kill at least two other residents of other nursing homes where she worked.
Pressdee is accused of administering lethal doses of unnecessary medication that resulted in the death of two patients and the hospitalization of a third, all in 2022. The charges include two counts of homicide, one count of attempted murder, a count of aggravated assault, three counts of neglect of a care-dependent person, and three counts of reckless endangerment.
McKnight’s Long-Term Care News reported that Pressdee had been disciplined for “abusive behavior toward patients or staff” at several facilities, which led to her quitting or being fired from 11 facilities since 2018.
The Tribune reported that Pressdee sent a sympathy card and a gift to Bowers’ family. Pressdee remains in the Butler County Prison, where she has been held since May 24. A spokesman for the Attorney General’s office told McKnight’s that the “investigation remains very active” but declined to say whether Bower would be included in the list of Pressdee’s victims.
