A chilling verdict from western Germany: a nurse has been sentenced to life imprisonment for deliberately killing patients to ease his night shift workload.
In Wuerselen, near Aachen, Germany, a 44-year-old palliative care nurse has been sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering 10 patients and attempting to kill 27 others. The crimes, which spanned from December 2023 to May 2024, shocked the nation and raised serious questions about patient safety in hospitals.
According to prosecutors, the nurse administered excessive doses of sedatives and painkillers—including Morphine and Midazolam—to mostly elderly patients. His goal was to make patients unconscious or sleep, reducing the demands of his night shifts. Investigators described this as a “master of life and death” mentality.
The accused had completed his nursing training in 2007 and joined the Wuerselen hospital in 2020, after working in other hospitals including Cologne. Prosecutors noted he displayed narcissistic traits, lacked empathy, and was often irritable toward patients requiring extra care.
The court ruled that his particular severity of guilt bars any possibility of early release under German law. The nurse retains the right to appeal. Authorities are continuing investigations into further suspicious deaths and have begun exhuming graves to identify additional victims, suggesting the true number of victims may be higher.