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American Morning

Texas Nurse Arrested in Deaths

Aired July 17, 2002 - 08:15   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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, we've got a whopper for you this morning. We move to Texas, where police are charging a 36-year-old nurse with two counts of capital murder. Vicky Dawn Jackson was arrested after an investigation into 20 suspicious deaths over just a two month period at a hospital in Nocona, Texas.

Ed Lavandera looks at the investigation that actually led to the arrest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): An unimaginable crime haunts the small north Texas town of Nocona. As one prosecutor puts it, a serial killer might have been at work in the town's only hospital. Authorities are investigating an unusually high number of deaths at Nocona General during a two month stretch around the beginning of the year.

DONNA BOWEN, PLAINTIFF'S ATTORNEY: I think this case is very interesting to everyone, how something like this can happen. We plan to get to the bottom of how it did happen.

LAVANDERA: What a team of investigators that includes the FBI is looking into is whether someone surreptitiously gave lethal doses of a powerful drug to patients, causing the deaths of an unknown number of people. Donnelly Reid has filed a lawsuit against Nocona General Hospital and a nurse who no longer works there. While he was at the hospital in January of last year, he asked for some pain medication.

DONNELLY REID, HOSPITAL PATIENT: And this lady comes in there and on my right side and ground something in my vein. And within just a short, short, short time I started going out.

LAVANDERA: Reid says he felt intense pressure weighing on his chest.

REID: I couldn't move my fingers. I couldn't talk. I was just there.

LAVANDERA: He claims the nurse slipped Mivacron into the I.V. Mivacron is commonly used to relax chest muscles so breathing tubes can be inserted. But using too much can be deadly.

TIM COLE, PROSECUTOR: Based on the investigative information that I've seen, that I've been given by the investigating officers, I certainly believe that this is a murder case.

LAVANDERA: So last summer, investigators exhumed the bodies of 10 people who died at Nocona General during the time period in question. Autopsies focused on finding traces of the Mivacron drug.

WANDA RUSSELL, DAUGHTER OF PATIENT: The nurse that is in question came in and gave her a shot in her I.V.

LAVANDERA: One of the possible victims is 95-year-old Oma Wiler (ph). Her daughter says moments after a nurse injected what they thought was Valium, Oma Wiler quickly slipped away.

RUSSELL: Of course she was going to heaven, yes. But maybe not just now.

LAVANDERA: Investigators say Nocona General Hospital is not under investigation. They have only one suspect, a person some say was playing god.

Ed Lavandera, CNN, Dallas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: The attorney for Mrs. Jackson has not returned calls from CNN about the arrest and several months ago attorney Sid Murphy told CNN that, "It would be premature to discuss the case regarding the client."

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