Former respiratory therapist Jennifer Hall was sentenced for her role in the deaths of two Missouri hospital patients in the early 2000s, CBS affiliate KCTV reported Aug. 19.
Ms. Hall, a former employee of Chillicothe-based Hedrick Medical Center, was sentenced Aug. 18 to 18 years in prison with the possibility of parole. She was initially charged with two counts of first-degree murder, but in April, she took a plea deal for two counts of first-degree involuntary manslaughter and one count of second-degree assault.
Fern Franco, 75, and David Wesley Harper, 37, were among nine people who died under what court documents describe as "medically suspicious" events at the medical center. An autopsy revealed morphine and a succinylcholine, a powerful muscle relaxer, in Ms. Franco's system. Neither drug had been ordered by her physicians, prosecutors said.
From December 2001, when Ms. Hall began working at the hospital, until she went on administrative leave the following May, there were 18 cardiac arrest events. The hospital had recorded an average of one a year previously.
Ms. Hall has denied any involvement in the patients' deaths.