When a loved one goes into the hospital for a procedure or illness, we expect that those taking care of them have desire to help others. Nursing is a profession that requires heart and passion for helping others in their healing. They are trained to provide compassionate care to those they are charged with helping. Although sometimes their patients do not survive, it is their goal to provide the best care possible. One nurse in Albany, Georgia took her mission to another level when she decided to also play God.
In 1985, the administrators at Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital became aware of a sudden increase in the number of patients suffering and dying from cardiac arrest in the intensive care unit. They performed an audit on hospital records and realized there had been six deaths that seemed suspicious along with other almost deaths over a brief period of time. Quietly, they notified the police of their findings, and an investigation began.
Autopsies were performed on the deceased patients by authorities. The findings were astonishing. All the patients autopsied had all been injected with potassium chloride. This drug is widely used in lethal injection to stop the heart. When given undiluted, it causes the person to go into cardiac arrest and the heart to stop beating. Potassium chloride is used in hospitals regularly but with caution. It must be diluted appropriately and only given in needed doses. If used appropriately, this drug is helpful in the recovery of patients and cause no harm.
By January 1986, investigators had a suspect on their radar. Terri Eden Maples Rachals was a 24-year-old nurse who worked in the intensive care unit at Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital. It was determined that Rachals was responsible for multiple accounts of death and assault by injecting her patients with potassium chloride. She was arrested March 13,1986 and initially confessed to injecting five patients with potassium chloride. In her confession she claimed that she felt as though she was helping to end the patients’ suffering. She stated that she couldn’t handle watching the patients lay there with all the tubes connected to them.
On March 26,1986, Rachals was officially indicted on six counts of murder and twenty counts of aggravated assault against nine patients. The average number of cardiac arrest incidents in the intensive care was four a month. In the month of November 1985, there were eleven cardiac arrests and they all occurred during the 3:00pm to 11:00pm shift. Five of those incidents occurred in one day. The drug was previously available on the nurse’s carts, but once the drug was restricted, the number of deaths dropped dramatically. This solidified the hospital’s suspicions. She was only indicted for the incidents that could be linked to her through hospital records.
During her trial, the defense claimed that Rachals committed the crime while in a “fugue state.” This is a dissociative state that can cause a person to have memory loss and even act in ways that they would not normally act. It is usually a response to immense stress. Her defense also claimed that Rachals had been sexually assaulted by her adopted father at the age of eleven to prove mental instability. Her adopted father denied the accusations while on the stand.
On October 1,1986, Terri Rachals was found guilty but mentally ill on one charge of assault. She was sentenced to a 17-year prison sentence and was released in 2003.
List of victims:
October 19,1985: Milton Lucas 68-years old
November 7,1985: Minnie Houck 58-years old
November 10,1985: Joe Irwin 36-years old
November 15,1985: Roger Parker 36-years old (received at least 4 injections of Potassium Chloride)
November 25,1985: Andrew Daniels 73-years old
November 27,1985: Norris Morgan 3-years old
December 21,1985: Lee Creech 26-years old (Jail inmate. Received at least 6 injections of Potassium Chloride)
Survivors:
Sam Bentley
George Whitling
Frances Freeman
Jack Stephens
(All of the survivors suffered one or more cardiac event due to Terri Rachals)
I understand that mental illness is very much a real thing. Working in mental health, I see people daily who are seeking help for their illnesses. I cannot imagine the stress of watching people suffer in an intensive care unit. I could see how that stress could cause a mental break or issue for those witnessing this situation. I feel that it is not an excuse either though. We are responsible for our actions, even those caused from mental illnesses that affect us.
Although these people may not have made a recovery, it was not the responsibility of Terri Rachals to make that decision. Part of her sentence was not to work in the healthcare field for ten years following her release. That restriction will expire soon. I am thankful that it is now commonplace for healthcare employers to perform background checks on their perspective employees. It would be tragic if this woman was given access to patients again and able to return to her role of playing God.
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