nurse Charles Cullen murdered 29 patients in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

[RayGun]

Hospitals say they're not to blame for killer nurse Charles Cullen
by Rick Hepp/The Star-Ledger Tuesday January 29, 2008, 4:50 PM

Four hospitals that employed nurse Charles Cullen before he killed 13 patients at Somerset Medical Center told a state appeals court today they should not "be on the hook" to the victims' families for failing to report minor medical errors Cullen committed.

The hospitals are named as defendants in lawsuits filed by the families of most of Cullen's 13 victims at Somerset Medical Center - the last stop in a 16-year career during which he murdered 29 patients in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

But Saint Barnabas Medical Center, Warren Hospital, Hunterdon Medical Center and Morristown Memorial Hospital asked a three-judge panel to reverse a ruling from last fall that allowed the lawsuits to proceed against them and Somerset Medical.


The appeals court did not issue an immediate ruling on the motion, as is its custom.

The hospitals' attorneys argued Superior Court Judge Bryan Garruto erred when he ruled the facilities could be sued for not reporting Cullen's improper conduct - from medicating patients without doctor's orders to turning off their ventilators and treating them roughly - to authorities.

"These sort of incidents did not rise to the level of reporting," Saint Barnabas attorney Jack Bennett said. "In 20/20 hindsight, somebody can cast some sinister specters in these...But we can't be on the hook for people who had left our employ and 10 to 15 years down the road commits a crime."

But attorneys Michael Barrett, representing the victims' families, and Peter Korn, representing Somerset Medical, told the court Cullen's previous employers had a duty under state regulations to report the improper conduct.

"A medication error that endangers the life of a patient is absolutely reportable," Barrett said. "The hospital in that situation never even called the Department of Health."

Korn also reminded the panel that Saint Barnabas, Cullen's first hospital, never reported an internal investigation into whether Cullen tampered with bags of intravenous fluid prior to his 1992 resignation.

After his 2003 arrest, Cullen admitted to police he injected medicine into random fluid bags. He also admitted to killing one patient at Saint Barnabas, three at Warren Hospital and five at Hunterdon Medical.

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Wow glad no one in my family was at these hospitals!