Reading the story of the supposed killing nurse in Stockport, Rebecca Leighton, I just wonder how a nurse whose only job is to dispense medicines handed to her by pharmacy is thought likely to have contaminated them.  It seems most unlikely that she did.  Far more likely is that someone working in the company that supplies the drips to the hospital has made an error, or committed a crime.

Maybe (let’s look at all possibilities) there is a small amount of insulin being clandestinely added to saline drips as an experiment  to see how many more people die, and the perpetrator got the doseage wrong, and killed so many the ruse became obvious.

Or less evilly, insulin was added in error to a batch of drips by the manufacturer, and they’ve gone far and wide across many hospitals, and they need to stop a scare from developing.  The numbers made per batch must be in the thousands.

It would not be in the interests of the company or the health service that buys from that company to identify the corporate guilty party, or admit to taking part in any death-inducing schemes, or that a serious error has been committed, and so a defenceless nurse is picked on, and set up as the scapegoat.

GUARDIAN –

Insulin was found in a batch of 36 saline ampoules in a hospital storeroom after a nurse reported a high number of patients on her ward with unexplained low blood sugar levels. The alarm was raised on Tuesday but multiple sclerosis sufferer Ms Arden, from Stockport, died on 7 July. The two male patients died last week.


That sounds more like a contaminated batch coming in from the suppliers to me.  The question in my mind is whether suppliers are deliberately adding insulin, or it was mixed in, in error.   It wouldn’t be easy to manually add insulin in exactly the same concentration to 36 separate saline ampoules in a hospital storeroom, if not impossible.  


Presumably saline ampoules have seals and it can be seen if the seals have been broken prior to use.  If the seals were not broken, why the hell is the nurse being accused, other than to protect the suppliers from the scandal?  

TELEGRAPH –

Charges have been dropped. No less than 40 deaths are being investigated. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/8738848/Stepping-Hill-Rebecca-Leighton-cleared-of-poisonings-as-police-check-on-40-deaths.html

The defending solicitor –

During a bail application last month, it emerged the evidence at that stage against the nurse amounted to her fingerprint being on a saline bag which was damaged by a needle.

Her thumb print was also discovered on the bottom of a bottle of anti-biotic fluid which contained insulin.

A judge at Manchester Crown Court was told, though, that “many people” had access to both the bag and the fluid, and Ms Leighton had reason to touch them in her role as acting sister.

Mr Richmond said the case later began to unravel when the bag in question – used in saline drips for patients – was later ruled not to have been tampered with.

“The police examined the bag properly and concluded it had in fact not been damaged,” he said.

“We then had fingerprints of other individuals on other contaminated items but my client’s fingerprints were not on them.

“The prosecution became untenable then.”

TAP

The damaged, tampered saline ampoule was later found neither to have been damaged, nor to have been tampered with. It doesn’t sound too much like a s erious attempt to find a culprit, more a kneejerk way to keep the media quiet and stop a panic. The question now remains, who was responsible for the deaths of forty (or more?) people? Presumably the company selling the saline has to be a prime suspect.