Pennsylvania nurse Heather Pressdee, accused of murdering two patients with fatal doses of insulin, confesses to trying to kill NINETEEN other people

A Pennsylvania nurse is trying to avoid the death penalty after allegedly killing her patients with deadly amounts of insulin.

Former nurse Heather Pressdee, 41, is facing more murder charges after allegedly giving out lethal doses of insulin – which has been linked to 17 deaths of nursing home patients under her care.

The Pennsylvania-based heath care worker is charged with two new counts of murder, 17 new counts of attempted murder and 19 counts of neglect of a care-dependent person.

Pressdee, from Natrona Heights, Pennsylvania, was accused of killing two patients in May – but has since confessed to trying to kill 19 others at five different rehabilitation centers across the U.S. since 2020.

Her defense lawyers admitted they’re just trying to escape the death penalty.

Heather Pressdee, 41, from Natrona Heights, Pennsylvania, is trying to avoid the death penalty after allegedly killing her patients with deadly amounts of insulin

Pressdee is charged with two new counts of murder, 17 new counts of attempted murder and 19 counts of neglect of a care-dependent person

Her lawyers said: ‘What our goal has been from the beginning in this case is to avoid the possibility of the death penalty. I think that we are very very close to accomplishing that’

The lawyers – James DePasquale and Phil DiLucente – told abcnews : ‘What our goal has been from the beginning in this case is to avoid the possibility of the death penalty,’ DePasquale said. ‘I think that we are very very close to accomplishing that.’

DiLucente said: ‘Within the next 90 days there will be more we can comment on how this case is going to proceed, but it’s a substantial number of people and it’s a very serious case. Probably one of the most serious cases I’ve experienced in my career.’

Pressdee claimed that she killed the patients because she pitied their ‘quality of life’.

The deranged murders took place at the Quality Life Services, a skilled nursing facility in Chicora where Pressdee worked as a registered nurse.

The two patients that Pressdee admitted to killing were a 55-year-old non-verbal man with a severe medical condition and an 83-year-old man in hospice care.

The first incident happened in August 2022, according to Law&Crime. Heather Pressdee clocked out of work and two hours later the staff at Quality of Life Services found the 73-year old.

According to an affidavit, the man started to have seizures and suffered from severe hypoglycemia shortly after Pressdee provided direct care to him.

Officials said: ‘The alleged crimes happened while Pressdee was employed as a registered nurse at the following facilities: Concordia at Rebecca Residence, Belair Healthcare and Rehabilitation, Quality Life Services Chicora, Premier Armstrong Rehabilitation and Nursing Center and Sunnyview Rehabilitation and Nursing Center.

‘Pressdee typically administered the insulin during overnight shifts when staffing was low and the emergencies would not prompt immediate hospitalization.’

The former nurse’s victims ranged from 43 to 104-years-old.

Pennsylvania Attorney General Michselle Henry said: ‘The allegations against Ms. Pressdee are disturbing. It is hard to comprehend how a nurse, trusted to care for her patients, could choose to deliberately and systematically harm them.

‘The damage done to the victims and their loved ones cannot be overstated. Every person in a medical or care facility should feel safe and cared for, and my office will work tirelessly to hold the defendant accountable for her crimes and protect care-dependent Pennsylvanians from future harm.’

Pressdee is also said to have been disciplined for abusive behavior towards patients and/or staff at 11 health facilities since 2018, and she had either resigned or been fired from those.

The deranged murders took place at the Quality Life Services, a skilled nursing facility in Chicora where Pressdee worked as a registered nurse

A typical room at the Quality of Life Services facility located in Chicora, PA, where Pressdee had worked

After law enforcement arrived at her home in May, Pressdee seemingly admitted to being responsible.

She told officers that the surviving victim, who had been in COVID isolation, asked Pressdee to ‘kill him’.

Pressdee also told investigators that she felt bad for the two men who later died and that their ‘quality of life was not good’ before injecting them with insulin.

In a statement, Quality Life Services said: ‘Quality Life Services is shocked and devastated to learn that the charges brought against Ms. Pressdee by the Attorney General’s Office include alleged illegal activity that occurred at our QLS – Chicora facility.

‘We will continue to fully cooperate with the Attorney General’s Office as needed in the investigation and prosecution of this matter.

‘We can assure our community, our residents, our families and our staff that all residents of Quality Life Services – Chicora are safe and are receiving appropriate care and services.’

Insulin is a hormone made in the pancreas, an organ in your body that helps with digestion.

Insulin helps your body use glucose – which comes from sugar in the food and drink you consume – for muscle energy.

Too much insulin can result in an overdose – which causes severe hypoglycemia resulting in loss of consciousness, coma, severe and irreversible brain injuries or death.

Pressdee worked at Belair Healthcare and Rehabilitation (Guardian) from April 2021 to February 2022. During her time there, five deaths were reported that allegedly resulted from her lethal insulin doses.

On August 9, 2021 a 58-year-old woman who was not insulin-dependent diabetic died. She was admitted to the hospital for low blood sugar after being found unresponsive but returned to Belair and was found dead the next day. The nurse confessed she had given the 58-year-old 60 units of insulin less than two hours before she died.

Pressdee gave a 68-year-old at the same facility 100 units of insulin which may have led to her death on September 28, 2021.

A non-diabetic man at Belair died at the age of 79 after Pressdee administered 100 units on November 16, 2021.

A 92-year-old woman – who was described as ‘pleasant and oriented’ just two days before her death – passed away on December 28, 2021 and Pressdee admitted she gave her 60 units of insulin.

Quality of Life Services – Chicora was the facility where Pressdee worked as the assistant director of nursing from May 2022 to November.

Two deaths were reported at this facility – a 92-year-old man and a 99-year old woman – and a third victim was hospitalized but survived the incident.

At Premier Armstrong Rehabilitation and Nursing Center – where Pressdee worked from November to December of 2022 – a 90-year-old woman died and an 85-year-old woman was taken to hospital but survived after the nurse gave them both 60 units of insulin.

Concordia at Rebecca Residence was the facility that Pressdee worked at from October 2020 to April 2021. She allegedly used a fake name and phone number as a job reference. At the facility, an 89-year-old woman died on December 17 and Pressdee admitted that she administered 60 units of insulin and another 60 units before she died.

Sunnyview Rehabilitation and Nursing Center – where Pressdee as hired as unit manager in January 2023 – saw the deaths of six patients in relation to Pressdee’s alleged insulin crimes.

WHY DO DIABETICS INJECT INSULIN?

Insulin is a hormone made in the pancreas, an organ in your body that helps with digestion.

Insulin helps your body use glucose – which comes from sugar in the food and drink you consume – for muscle energy.

Glucose is initially absorbed by the gut from food and passed into the blood, where the body decides what to do with it.

Insulin makes this decision by regulating how much sugar moves from the blood into the blood cells, muscles or fat cells, where it can be used up or stored.

But diabetes can mean the pancreas does not make any insulin, it doesn’t make enough, or the insulin it does make doesn’t work properly.

This can lead to the levels of sugar in the blood becoming dangerously high or low – which can cause fatigue, feeling hungry or thirsty, or in extreme cases life-threatening coma.

To avoid this and stop blood sugar getting too high, diabetics can inject insulin into their body as a medication to bring their blood sugar down.

Source: Diabetes .org

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