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CNN Live Today

Former Nurse Suspected in as Many as 20 Hospital Deaths

Aired July 17, 2002 - 11:01   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Up first this hour on CNN: a woman who is supposed to save lives now sits in a Texas jail, charged with murdering two of her patients. Former nurse Vicky Dawn Jackson is suspected now in as many as 20 hospital deaths.

CNN's David Mattingly is on the story. He's in Texas town of Nocona this morning.

And, David, I must think a small town like that has got to be blown away by the news.

DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Leon. Indictments handed by the grand jury yesterday just confirmed what investigators and family members have privately suspected for more than a year and a half now, that a nurse working the late shift at the tiny 38-bed hospital was actually killing elderly patients, injecting them with a powerful muscle relaxer that causes the lungs to paralyze, causing the patients to suffocate.

We're waiting here this morning for more details from the county prosecutors. We do know there's two counts of capital murder filed against a Vicky Dawn Jackson, a licensed vocational nurse who, was fired from the hospital in February of last year. The charges cover the deaths of just four patients from the hospital. That's just four deaths out of 20 suspicious death that occurred in three-month time period at the hospital last year.

The investigation was actually started internally by the hospital. First of all, there were doses of the muscle relaxer mivacurium chloride (ph) that turned up missing at the pharmacy there at the hospital. That drug is normally used to relax patients so that a breathing tube can be inserted into the lungs.

Then there were the unexplained deaths, double the number that the hospital would normally see in a three-month period. Authorities then got involved, including the FBI. Ten bodies were exhumed last year. It has taken this long for the indictments to come down in part because of the difficult of detecting the mivacurium chloride (ph) in the body. Now these are just the first criminal charges against Vicky Johnson. Each of them could bring the death penalty.

She's already named in at least the two civil suits, and one of them coming from the family of a man who actually survived after Jackson allegedly injected his IV with a drug. Jackson was arrested yesterday shortly after the indictments came down. She is described as a 36-year-old mother of one.

Something very interestingly, Leon. One of the alleged victims is an Everett Jackson, who was the grandfather of Jackson's now ex- husband. So a great deal to talk about today in a case that has been long investigated. People very anxious to find out more details here.

Back to you.

HARRIS: That's amazing. David, let me ask you something real quickly if I can here. Any other information about the cases of those who actually did die earlier, and that they think may be linked to this nurse, because what comes to mind is a case from Midwest -- I'm not sure if you remember this case or not -- of a male nurse who said that he was doing it, because he thought that these patients were terminal, and that he didn't want them to suffer. Anything like that resonating in this case here at all?

MATTINGLY: No word yet on how Jackson might reply to these charges, but in the civil cases, she has claimed that she's not liable for those cases. That was in the civil cases. What we have here is an investigation into 10 bodies that were exhumed. That is 10 bodies out of the 20 suspicious deaths at that hospital.

There are just two counts of capital murder covering four of those deaths. We hope to learn more details about the other six deaths of those bodies that were exhumed and examined sometime later today.

HARRIS: Got you. David Mattingly, in Nocona, Texas. Thank you very much, David.

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