Va Nurse Accused Of Murdering 3 Patients

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. - Henry Hudon begged not to be put in Ward C.

The Air Force veteran, who was being treated for schizophrenia at a hospital in Northampton, had symptoms of the flu. That meant a transfer to the acute-care ward.

Hudon resisted, telling his family he feared patients were being killed in Ward C. His family thought Hudson was just ranting.

"His last words to my mother were, `Don't leave me here! They're going to kill me! They kill people here!"' Christine Duquette, Hudon's sister, said yesterday.

Within hours of his transfer that December night in 1995, Hudon died of a heart attack in Ward C.

Now, a former nurse at the hospital, Kristen Gilbert, stands accused of killing Hudon and two other patients. Gilbert also is charged with two counts of attempted murder.

Hudon's family simply didn't believe the flu had killed the 35-year-old patient. They suspected medical negligence, however, not murder. "We knew that night that something funny was going on," Duquette said.

An autopsy later showed that Hudson died of poisoning from an overdose of epinephrine, a drug that can overstimulate the heart.

Prosecutors said Gilbert used epinephrine on all five victims.

Nurse also made a bomb threat

Gilbert, 31, of Setauket, N.Y., was accused in federal indictments unsealed yesterday. The former nurse, who is serving a prison sentence for making a bomb threat to the hospital, was also charged with retaliating against a witness and obstructing justice.

Authorities refused to suggest a motive.

Gilbert worked at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs hospital as a part-time registered nurse from March 1989 to February 1996. She was present for about half of all medical emergencies in her acute-care ward and for 37 deaths in her last 14 months on the job.

Both are unusually high numbers, prosecutors said.

The three dead patients were identified as Hudon; Kenneth Cutting, 41; and Edward Skwira, 69. Cutting and Skwira both died in February 1996.

Cutting, who was blind and had multiple sclerosis, was subject to a do-not-resuscitate order at the time of his death. Prosecutors said in court papers that Gilbert asked a hospital supervisor if she could leave work early if Cutting were to die.

Forty minutes later, Cutting suffered a heart attack and died. Gilbert immediately went home sick, prosecutors said.

Court papers also say that a patient given a dose of epinephrine later accused Gilbert of pumping something into his hand that gave him pain and numbness. He needed to be rescued by an emergency medical team.

Investigators said they found books on assisted suicide in Gilbert's home during a search, though U.S. Attorney Donald Stern said the injected patients, however ill, had not asked to die.

Colleagues grew suspicious

Three hospital nurses who worked on the ward first identified the suspicious pattern of patient deaths in February 1996. They also reported that 85 doses of epinephrine, also known as adrenaline, were missing.

Some empty, discarded vials of the drug were found in the hospital after some patients suffered sudden heart problems, according to court papers.

Gilbert, who is divorced and wasn't granted custody of her two children, was sentenced in April to 15 months in prison for phoning in a bomb threat to the hospital in September 1996, while she was under investigation for the deaths.

Gilbert had admitted to unstable behavior in that case, and prosecutors described her then as a habitual deceiver who even faked attempting suicide.

Her lawyer argued at the time that Gilbert was driven to disturbed behavior by the breakup of her marriage, the death of a grandparent, a disabling shoulder injury and the stress of the investigation. Court testimony indicated that Gilbert had been hospitalized several times for intentional drug overdoses.

Gilbert's attorney in the bomb case, Harry Miles, did not return telephone calls seeking comment yesterday. No one answered the phone at the home of Gilbert's father.

Arraignment on the new charges was set for Dec. 7.

Michael Costello, an assistant inspector general at Veterans Affairs, called the case "an aberration" that the department itself had uncovered. He said the hospital had tightened its handling of epinephrine.