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Charles CullenSome people go to work to do a bad jobHe's another nurse who murdered lots of people. Mr. Cullen left Warren Hospital in Phillipsburg, N.J. amid a criminal investigation, yet his record with the state licensing board remained unblemished. Nothing unusual about that. And the National Practitioner Data Bank has even looser reporting requirements. Other hospitals in which he worked did not report their suspicions about him. One hospital, St. Luke's in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, combed through the records of 69 patients who had died while around Mr. Cullen, but they declined to say why they were suspicious. Prosecutors and police who looked into it were left with nothing to go on. Same old, same old. Dr. William Cors, chief medical officer at Somerset Medical Center in Somerville, N.J. said, "...we're prevented from telling one another what we know out of fear, quite frankly, of being sued." He also said that "short of an actual conviction or revocation of a license, not of that information gets shared." Patients get sued if they speak. Healthcare professionals get sued if they speak. Who is going to report? According to the New York Times (12/17/03, pg.C23) the hospitals and public agencies that were concerned about him say they were defeated by a system that lacks a way to spread the word about medical professionals suspected of misdeeds, and by hospitals and government agencies that are unwilling to do so. And that is part of what enables nurses and doctors to vent and act out and indulge sick passions at the expense of patients with little fear of retribution or discovery. Medicine is a safe haven for unfriendly people of all types.One of the last people murdered by Nurse Cullen allegedly was the Very Rev. Florian J. Gall, a Catholic Priest, with a lethal dose of digoxin, a heart medication. |
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