KUALA LUMPUR: A former Pennsylvania nurse has been sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to intentionally injecting nearly two dozen of her patients with excessive doses of insulin, killing three of them.
Heather Pressdee, 41, was sentenced on Thursday in a Butler county state courthouse near Pittsburgh where nearly 40 of her victims' family members were present, US news portal WTAE reported.
According to a news release issued by prosecutors, the families spoke about how her crimes had impacted them.
It highlighted how frighteningly vulnerable patients can be in healthcare settings.
Pressdee was sentenced to three consecutive life sentences without parole, and another consecutive term of 380-760 years behind bars.
Pressdee pleaded guilty to the first-degree murder of three of her patient victims and the attempted murder of 19 more patients, injecting them with overdoses of insulin.
She avoided a trial as well as the possibility of execution by lethal injection through a plea bargain, pleading guilty to three charges of first-degree murder and three counts of attempted murder.
Prosecutors who initially filed criminal charges against Pressdee in May 2023 determined that she intentionally injected a mix of lethal and potentially deadly amounts of insulin into 22 patients at five different medical facilities spread across four different Pittsburgh-area counties.
The patients– whom Pressdee began attacking in 2020– reportedly ranged in age from 43 to 104.
"I'm very sorry," Pressdee said in court on Thursday, WTAE reported.
"I'm sorry for what I've done."
Meanwhile, outside the courtroom on Thursday, her lawyer, Phil DiLucente, spoke to reporters and sought to assure the public of Pressdee's regret.
