March 02, 2006

He Truly Is a Monster

Charles Cullen was sentenced today to eleven consecutive life terms.

...one of the most prolific killers the U.S. health care industry has ever seen — escaped the death penalty after making a deal with prosecutors to tell them which patients he killed with hard-to-detect drug injections.

It's fascinating that a man who claims to have killed close to 40 people was sitting in front of the courtroom with a bulletproof vest on.

Cullen has admitted to using lethal doses of medications — usually the heart medication digoxin — to kill patients. He told authorities when he was arrested in 2003 that he killed "very sick" patients, and described the slayings as mercy killings.

Many of the deaths were not recognized as murders at the time, in part because many of the victims were old or sickly. Cullen was finally caught after officials at Somerset Medical Center in Somerville began noticing that patients who died or nearly did had unusually high levels of digoxin in their bodies.

Cullen agreed to help investigators solve his killings. In exchange, prosecutors in all seven counties where he worked agreed not to seek the death penalty.

Because of the frailties of his memory and imprecise — and in some cases, destroyed — medical records, it is unclear whether authorities have identified all of his victims. Investigations remain open in two New Jersey counties.

It's such a shame that the victims and their families have had to suffer through this disgusting man's idea of playing God. Many of the victims' family members wish that he could die the way his victims died - by lethal injection. No matter how much I'd like to see the same thing, I can't help but be thankful this exuse for a human being won't be able to inflict harm on anyone else.