Ohio Mother Gives Autistic Daughter Lethal Insulin Dose
EASTLAKE, Ohio (AP) — An Ohio woman has pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter after prosecutors say she gave her autistic 21-year-old daughter a fatal dose of insulin and did not call for help. The News-Herald () reports Sandra Speck, of Eastlake, pleaded guilty Monday and will be sentenced June 19. Prosecutor Rocco DiPierro says he'll recommend that she serve no more than four years. DiPierro says Speck's daughter, Mindy, was prone to violent outbursts and was particularly aggressive the day she died. He says Speck gave her insulin because her blood sugar was too high, but then gave her additional doses when she would not calm down. Speck says she fell asleep beside her unconscious daughter before she could give her a soft drink to counteract the insulin. She called police the next day. Continue reading >>
Nurse 'injected Her Non-diabetic Mother With A Potentially Lethal Dose Of Insulin Leaving Her Foaming At The Mouth Because She Didn't Want Her To Be Discharged From Hospital'
A nurse injected her non-diabetic mother with a potentially lethal dose of insulin in her hospital bed because she didn't want her to be discharged from hospital, a court heard today. Julia Knight wept on the stand as she said she wanted to make her 81-year-old mother a 'bit poorly' so medical staff would see that she was too ill to go home. Elderly Irene Robson had been admitted to hospital after suffering a fall at her home but later fell unconscious and was left foaming at the mouth after her blood sugar levels plummeted to fatal levels. After doctors saved her life, they discovered that she had been injected with insulin, usually used to treat type 1 diabetes, which had caused the hypoglycaemic attack. Knight, aged 56 years, admits forging a prescription for the insulin and injecting her mother at her bedside at the Horton General Hospital in Banbury, Oxfordshire, on October 7, 2014. However she denies trying to murder her mother and told jurors she only wanted to make Ms Robson have a 'blip' so that she would not be discharged prematurely. Her mother had been in and out of hospital after her health deteriorated following treatment for leukaemia, and later a brain haemorrhage and a series of falls, the court heard. With a trembling voice, Knight told jurors: 'I had been concerned about mum coming home, I needed to do something that would make them sit up and see that she wasn't well. 'They were going to send her home again with no care package, with no thought to her health failing. 'I wanted her to be a little bit poorly, just to have a bit of a blip, so they would sit up and take notice and think "we cannot send this lady home so soon".' After creating a bogus prescription at the doctor's surgery where she worked, using a patient's details, Knight collected insuli Continue reading >>
Nurse Speaks Of Horror After Fatal Insulin Overdose
A NURSE who injected a diabetic patient with ten times too much insulin has spoken of her horror as she realised her fatal mistake. Community nurse, Joanne Evans had visited 85-year-old Margaret Thomas at her home in Pontnewynydd, Pontypool, on Saturday June 2, 2007 to give the pensioner, who was registered blind, her insulin. Two insulin pens jammed and a third was broken.Mrs Evans thought she had an insulin syringe in the car, but she discovered it was a regular syringe which is marked in millilitres instead of insulin units. Mrs Evans converted the amount wrongly in her mind and injected Mrs Thomas four times with the syringe with 3.6ml (approximately 360 units) instead of 36 units. Mrs Thomas died six hours later when she collapsed on her doorstep. Mrs Evans told the Nursing and Midwifery council panel at a disciplinary hearing in Cardiff yesterday, that she had only realised her mistake later that night. She said: “When I was in bed I was going through what had happened in the day. I was going ‘no I couldn’t of done that.’ I have never done that amount of insulin in my life. But I could not believe that I did it. I was thinking and getting more and more irate. I was going round and round the house thinking ‘oh my God, I think I have done this’. “I had nobody to tell because I thought that everybody switched off their mobile phones in the night. I thought ‘look at the time, the patient is dead, oh my God, she’s gone. I cannot ring an ambulance because she’s already gone’. “I can remember thinking my family were so proud of me being a nurse. It’s just horrific. I thought everybody would think I was just evil. If this was my mother I could not forgive myself. “We were short of staff, I was tied, but there was just no excuse.” The panel al Continue reading >>
Insulin Overdose: Dosage, Symptoms, And Treatment
Insulin is an important hormone used in medical treatments for people with type 1 and type 2 diabetes. It helps the body's cells to properly absorb sugar. Insulin is a lifesaving medication when taken correctly, but an insulin overdose can have some serious side effects. This article explores signs of insulin overdose to look out for, as well as steps to take to avoid insulin overdoses. Contents of this article: Safe vs. unsafe insulin doses There are a few things to consider to ensure a correct insulin dose. Insulin doses can vary greatly from person to person. The normal dose for one person may be considered an overdose for another. Basal insulin The insulin needed to keep the blood sugar steady throughout the day is called basal insulin. The amount of insulin needed changes from person to person based on what time of day they take it, and whether their body is resistant to insulin or not. It is best to consult a doctor to figure out the appropriate basal insulin dosage. Mealtime insulin Mealtime insulin is insulin that is taken after a meal. Glucose (sugar) is released into the bloodstream as the body breaks down food, which raises the blood sugar levels. In people with diabetes, this extra sugar must be met with extra insulin so the body can use it properly. There are a few different factors to be considered in terms of the mealtime insulin levels. People with diabetes have to consider: their pre-meal blood sugar how many carbs are in the food they are eating if they plan to do anything active after the meal Then they must factor in their own level of insulin sensitivity and the blood sugar target they want to hit after the insulin is taken. The process can be complicated and, as such, there is room for error. Other variables There are also a few different types of Continue reading >>
- Insulin overdose: Dosage, symptoms, and treatment
- Relative effectiveness of insulin pump treatment over multiple daily injections and structured education during flexible intensive insulin treatment for type 1 diabetes: cluster randomised trial (REPOSE)
- How to use basal insulin: Benefits, types, and dosage
Death By Insulin: How Sweet It Isn't!!
Case Study S. P. was a nurse who had a long history of depression. She had stopped her medication several months ago since her life had stabilized. However, with the discovery of her husband having an affair, a setback at work, and the terminal illness of her mother, she soon began to have feelings of unworthiness and hopelessness. She was working for a home health agency and was involved in the care of an elderly woman who had a heart condition brought on by her long history of insulin dependent diabetes. Her patient had just received her three month supply of quick-acting insulin. S.P. decided to take one of the bottles and in the privacy of her home she injected herself with the entire contents. Within several minutes she began to feel hungry, nervous, sweaty, shaky, and very weak. This rapidly progressed to her feeling dizzy, disoriented and confused, ultimately resulting in drowsiness, unconsciousness, coma, and finally death. Why did she die? Cause of Death? If your answer to this question is that S.P died from an overdose of insulin, I suppose you are right. After all that’s what I would put on the death certificate. But what I’m really looking for here is the mechanism underlying the cause of death. Only by understanding the pathophysiology of disease, dysfunction, and death, can one begin to appreciate the complexity of life and how easy it is for us to die and fall off the radar screen for the survival of the fittest. The strength of a chain is only as good as its weakest link. In the case here of S.P, most people who are familiar with diabetes and insulin realize that since insulin is a hormone that is needed to keep the blood sugar (glucose) from going too high, then taking too much of it can cause a person’s blood sugar to drop too low. That’s exact Continue reading >>
Dr Brian Crickitt Who Murdered Wife With Lethal Insulin Dose Sentenced To 20 Years Jail
A DOCTOR who murdered his wife and then took his lover to see her body in the morgue has been sentenced to at least 20 years jail. The brother of victim Christine Crickitt called out, “hear hear judge,” and her family applauded after Justice Clifton Hoeben sentenced her husband Brian Kenneth Crickitt, 63, to 27 years for her murder with a non-parole period of 20 years and three months. Justice Hoeben said Crickitt “clearly abused his position of trust” both as a husband and a doctor, by using “subterfuge” to inject a lethal dose of fast-acting insulin into hi wife’s buttock and then leaving her to succumb to the overdose. “The most serious consideration is the egregious breach of trust ... The deceased was left to die a painful death alone by someone she trusted and cared for,” Justice Hoeben said. Crickitt was convicted following a judge-alone trial of murdering his wife Christine, 61, by injecting her with fact-acting insulin on December 31, 2009. Ms Crickitt’s grieving adult children from a previous marriage were horrified when Crickitt turned up at the morgue a couple of days later holding hands with an unknown woman who had arrived driving their dead mother’s car. The Crown case was that Crickitt murdered his wife so he could continue his relationship with meditation teacher Linda Livermore and cash in on his spouse’s $586,000 life insurance policy. After Ms Crickitt’s death, homicide detectives discovered that two days before she mysteriously died Crickitt had done an internet search on lethal doses of fast-acting insulin. The following day while working at Campbelltown Medical and Dental Centre he prescribed a diabetic patient with fast-acting insulin even though the woman already had a supply of the drug for four or five months. He then Continue reading >>
Doctor Found Guilty Of Murdering Wife With Fatal Dose Of Insulin
Photo: AAP Sydney GP Brian Crickitt has been found guilty of murdering his wife by injecting her with a fatal dose of insulin. Crickitt was accused of injecting his wife of 19 years, Christine, with insulin over New Year’s Eve in 2009. She was then found dead at the couple’s home in Woodbine, Sydney, on New Year’s Day 2010. The trial, heard by a judge alone, was told that 63-year-old Crickitt killed his wife so he could claim her life insurance and start a new life with his lover. It heard evidence that Crickitt and his wife were in a “toxic” relationship, and Crickitt was having an affair with another woman, Linda Livermore. Crickitt was motivated to murder his wife so he could marry Ms Livermore, claim more than half-a-million dollars from his wife’s life insurance and retain their shared property interests, the court heard. Crown prosecutor Mark Tedeschi QC said Crickett knew insulin degraded quickly in a body, and that the corpse would show no traces of it 24 hours later. Primary motive ‘dislike’ of wife Justice Clifton Hoeben told the court Crickitt’s primary motive was his dislike of his wife. “I have found that the Crown has established that a combination of an increasing dislike for the deceased and his infatuation with Miss Livermore provided a motive for the accused to murder the deceased,” he said. “Given my other findings, not only am I satisfied that it would have provided an adequate motive, I have concluded that it was, in fact, the primary motive. Though an autopsy found no clear cause of death, Justice Hoeben was satisfied Ms Crickitt was injected by her husband. “The administration of the insulin to the deceased was a deliberate act on the part of the accused and this act caused the death of the deceased.” “It follows that Continue reading >>
Prosecutor: Woman Gave Autistic Daughter Lethal Insulin Dose
An Ohio woman has pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter after prosecutors say she gave her autistic 21-year-old daughter a fatal dose of insulin and did not call for help. The News-Herald ( ) reports Sandra Speck, of Eastlake, pleaded guilty Monday and will be sentenced June 19. Prosecutor Rocco DiPierro says he'll recommend that she serve no more than four years. DiPierro says Speck's daughter, Mindy, was prone to violent outbursts and was particularly aggressive the day she died. He says Speck gave her insulin because her blood sugar was too high, but then gave her additional doses when she would not calm down. Speck says she fell asleep beside her unconscious daughter before she could give her a soft drink to counteract the insulin. She called police the next day. ——— Information from: The News-Herald, Continue reading >>
2 Businessmen Kill Selves With Insulin Overdose
PUNE: Two diabetic patients from city killed themselves with an overdose of insulin at a hotel in Chiplun in Ratnagiri district late on Friday night. The suicide note left behind states that they could not cope with the severe financial loss and that no one should be held responsible for their death. The deceased were identified as Mahesh Vijay Kulkarni (42) from Patwardhan Baugh area in Erandawane and Milind Panditrao Pujari (44), who stayed near Deenanath Mangeshkar hospital, also in Erandawane Kulkarni and Pujari together were running a business in commodities for over two decades. They had left for Chiplun, around 230 km from here, on Thursday and checked in a hotel around 8pm. Sachin Ingole, assistant inspector of the Chiplun police station, told TOI over phone that around 12.20 am on Friday, one of the victims sought medical help from the hotel's receptionist. The hotel staff rushed to the room and repeatedly rang the door bell, but no one responded. The staff later managed to open the door with the help of a spare key. They were shocked to see both of them lying unconscious on their respective beds. The hotel manager immediately alerted the police and the duo was rushed to a nearby private hospital. The doctors declared Pujari dead on arrival at the hospital, while Kulkarni, who was in an unconscious state, was immediately taken to another hospital. He died while undergoing treatment at the hospital around 6am on Saturday. Four insulin syringes of 3 ml each and the suicide note were recovered from the room. Ingole said the note was written and signed by the deceased in Marathi said that they had committed suicide because they had suffered a severe financial loss in the commodity business. It further read that no one should be held responsible for their death. "Pr Continue reading >>
Nurse Gave Lethal Dose Of Insulin, Court Hears
DONALD FAIRBAIRN was only planning to stay at Yagoona Nursing Home for as long as it took to recuperate from one operation and prepare for the next, before returning to live with his daughter. As it happened, the diabetic 81-year-old was there less than three days before he died after receiving a lethal dose of insulin. In September 2006, Mr Fairbairn was admitted to the nursing home from Bankstown Hospital, where he was meant to receive eight units of insulin in the morning and six units at night, a court heard yesterday. But two days later a nurse allegedly administered 10 times his correct dose of insulin after incorrectly reading a medication chart written up by the patient's general practitioner. That chart has become the subject of an inquest into Mr Fairbairn's death. Glebe Coroner's Court was crowded with barristers angling to deflect blame from their clients - and implicitly on to others - yesterday. They represented Mr Fairbairn's family, the nurses who administered his insulin, the nursing home, the GP who wrote out his medication chart, the hospital where he was declared dead and the doctor who finally attended to him. The court heard that Mr Fairbairn's doctor, Ha Tran, wrote out charts for 15 different medications he was to receive while in the nursing home, including insulin. A document tendered to the court indicated Dr Tran had written what looked like "80. mane and 60 nocte", to indicate the morning and evening amounts. The nurse who originally tended to Mr Fairbairn's medication, Kristina Cetin, administered the correct amounts of eight units in the morning and six in the evening, saying she read the zeros as "u's", which she took to mean units. Patients did not usually receive more than 30 units of insulin, she said, and she would have checked with h Continue reading >>
Diabetic Patient Unlawfully Killed After Lethal Insulin Injection From Community Nurse
A diabetic patient who was given a lethal dose of insulin by a community nurse was unlawfully killed, a coroner has ruled. Continue reading >>
Dr Brian Crickitt, Who Murdered Wife With Lethal Insulin Dose, Sentenced To 27 Years Jail
Unable to playback video The family of Christine Crickitt clapped after Justice Clifton Hoeben sentenced her husband Brian Crickitt to 27 years for her murder with a non-parole period of 20 years and three months. Justice Hoeben said Crickitt “clearly abused his position of trust” both as a husband and a doctor, by using “subterfuge” to inject a lethal dose of fast-acting insulin into his wife’s buttock and then leaving her to succumb to the overdose. “The most serious consideration is the egregious breach of trust ... The deceased was left to die a painful death alone by someone she trusted and cared for.” Crickitt was convicted following a judge alone trial of murdering his wife Christine, 61, by injecting her with fast-acting insulin on December 31, 2009. Ms Crickitt’s adult children from a previous marriage were then horrified when Crickitt turned up at the morgue a couple of days later with an unknown woman who was driving their dead mother’s car. The Crown case was that Crickitt murdered his wife so he could continue his relationship with meditation teacher Linda Livermore and cash in on his spouse’s $586,000 life insurance policy. After her death, homicide detectives discovered that two days before she mysteriously died Crickitt had done an internet search on lethal doses of fast-acting insulin. The following day while working at Campbelltown Medical and Dental Centre he prescribed a diabetic with fast-acting insulin even though she already had a supply of the drug for four or five months. He then printed off the prescription, deleted the record of it from the general practice’s computer system and went to a pharmacy to have it filled. Source:Supplied Senior Crown prosecutor Mark Tedeschi told the court that some time on the night of Decembe Continue reading >>
Doctor Prescribed 'elephant' Dose
A medical tribunal has heard how a doctor prescribed "enough insulin for an elephant" to an elderly woman at an Edinburgh hospital. Dr Lucy Mahinda admitted writing an entry for a "lethal" dose of insulin, which was nearly 10 times the correct amount, at Western General Hospital. The prescription error was spotted by a nurse before the insulin was given. Dr Mahinda has been found guilty of making a number of clinical mistakes while working at the hospital in 2012. On Friday, the hearing found her "factually" guilty of the prescription error. The hearing is now continuing so it can determine whether she is fit to practise. The General Medical Council (GMC) alleges her fitness to practise is impaired by her misconduct and deficient professional performance. I still find it difficult to believe that I actually prescribed this lethal doseDr Lucy Mahinda If the hearing finds against her fitness to practise she could face restrictions on her work, a period of suspension, or even erasure from the medical register. She was not present or represented at the Medical Practitioners hearing in Manchester. Dr Mahinda acknowledged her insulin prescription error in writing to the GMC, admitting the amount was "a dose for an elephant". She wrote: "(It) is a very weird error, most probably I would have written down three units, eight units is even too much, but 38 units is a dose for an elephant. "And apparently the type of insulin was also incorrect. A very weird error, but above all a very serious error. I still find it difficult to believe that I actually prescribed this lethal dose. "I regret very much having made this particular error." 'Fatal consequences' During the same shift on 9 June, Dr Mahinda also prescribed 500mg of the drug Nitrofurantoin to an 84-year-old woman when the c Continue reading >>
A Mum-of-three With A History Of Self-harming Injected Herself With A Lethal Dose Of Insulin, An Inquest Heard.
Diabetic Julie Winson (41) survived insulin overdoses just a week before her death and in 2005. She had taken a paracetamol overdose while pregnant in 1993. Her husband Andrew, a postal worker, told the Chesterfield inquest he returned home from work at 1pm last December 1 and found her apparently dead in bed. He alerted emergency services and asked neighbour Colin Palmer to help him try and revive her. “Colin tried to do CPR but I heard him say: ‘I think it’s too late’ and then the ambulance staff arrived and informed me she had passed away,” said Mr Winson. Pc Eve Ince said ten empty insulin pens were found near Mrs Winson’s body and she had a minor wound to her right wrist. Mr Winson said: “She hadn’t been well for quite a few years. It was mainly due to her diabetes. She suffered with depression a lot. “She didn’t take her insulin regularly. I did my best to try and make sure she took it but she was very stubborn,” he added. Mrs Winson was admitted to Chesterfield Royal Hospital on November 24 following an insulin overdose. She recovered and told mental health nurse Angela Jones she regretted taking the overdose. “She couldn’t give an answer as to why she wasn’t taking her insulin treatment properly. She said she was sometimes too busy,” said Ms Jones. “She said the overdose was directly connected to her feeling physically ill — and this appeared to be connected to her not taking her treatment.” Ms Jones added: “She said her husband was caring and supportive and she was happy about everything except having a chronic illness. I was quite shocked when I heard what had happened.” Deputy North Derbyshire Coroner Nigel Anderson recorded an open verdict on Mrs Winson, of Park Road, Shirebrook. He said it might appear obvious to her Continue reading >>
Nurse Told Police That Fatal Insulin Dose Stopped Brother's Suffering
Home | Crime New Hampshire Union Leader The Derry nurse under investigation for the death of her brother-in-law told police she injected him with 300 milliliters of insulin so he would no longer suffer, according to documents on file with the state Board of Nursing. Five days after the Oct. 9 death of Randall Percival, Catherine George appeared at the Derry Police Department and reported she killed her brother-in-law, according to an emergency order issued Tuesday to suspend her license as a registered nurse. Nursing authorities said they are also investigating George for possible drug diversion, or theft of drugs, from her employer. George was a longtime nurse at Catholic Medical Center in Manchester, said Alex Walker, general counsel for CMC. He said the hospital found out about the matter through police and when George called to say she would not be coming to work. 'We are in the process of conducting our own internal investigation into this matter to get to the bottom of what happened,' Walker said. Meanwhile, the Attorney General's Office said part of its criminal investigation will include whether George took similar measures against others, including hospital patients. 'That would be part of the scope of the investigation, but at this point we have no evidence of that,' said homicide prosecutor Jane Young. She said a criminal investigation into the matter has been going on for 10 or 11 days. According to Percival's obituary, he died at his Raymond home surrounded by family. The obituary lists no cause of death, but it asked for donations for a foundation established to combat cholangiocarcinoma, or cancer of the bile duct. Percival, 55, worked in optical engineering, had two sons, a grandson, siblings and in-laws. Cathy George is listed as a sister-in-law in the Continue reading >>
