14 DAY TRIAL // A doctor in Brasil is facing multiple murder charges over allegedly killing patients in order to free up hospital beds in the overcrowded facility.
News Australia writes that Virginia Soares de Souza may be listed as a serial killer, in which case she would be the most dangerous and most prolific one in history.
Authorities suspect that she has killed as many as 300 patients during her time at the Hospital Evangelico in Curitiba.
She was originally under suspicion in seven cases following complaints from patients' relatives. Dr. Mario Lobato, investigating the case, claims that evidence has been recovered in 20 cases so far.
"There are 20 cases which have already been closed, and we have nearly 300 cases still open which we are looking at. […] In each case, the testimony of people who worked inside the hospital confirmed what we have found on the patient records," Lobato says.
"All of them have the same modus operando, the same relationship between the drug and death, and the same time between both," he notes.
De Souza would often administer large doses of the muscle relaxant drug Pavulon to said patients. The medication contains active ingredients used in lethal injection cocktails.
She would couple that with tampering with the oxygen supply received by patients on a respirator.
"One was awake, being nebulised but not even connected to a respirator. [...] This patient had asked his family to bring his glasses so he could do some reading while he was in the intensive care ward," Lobato details.
"Another patient had just asked a nurse for a cup of water. [...] This nurse testified that one of the things she will never forget is that she didn't manage to give him the cup of water because by the time she returned he had already died," he notes.