By SHAUNA ANDERSON
Update:
Disturbing photos have emerged Italian nurse Daniela Poggiali, 42, posing with a patient — whom a colleague claims was dead at the time.
According to Buzzfeed, police initially reported that Poggiali had taken a selfie with a recently deceased patient. But over the weekend, it was revealed that the photos were taken by her colleague.
They were then leaked to the media.
Poggiali’s lawyer has denied the patient in the photos was deceased — but her colleague Sara Pausini claims that Poggiali intimidated her into taking the photos of her smiling with a deceased patient, she told Corriere Della Sera.
Previously, Mamamia reported:
Daniela Poggiali’s colleagues often thought she was cold and calculating.
But they looked past it as she was always eager to work.
While they were often shocked by some of her seemingly chilling comments about their patients, they never expected this.
42-year-old Daniela Poggiali was arrested over the weekend for the suspected murder of up to 38 patients she had treated at an Italian hospital.
The reason cited for the serial killings was because Daniela Poggiali found the patients or their relatives “annoying.”
Poggiali who lives in the Italian town of Lugo in Northeastern Italy was already under investigation for the death of a 78-year old patient, Rosa Calderoni who died suddenly with suspiciously high blood levels of potassium, which can provoke cardiac arrest.
That case triggered suspicions and led authorities to comb through other deaths that occurred when Poggiali was working.
According to The New York Post Italian police found a selfie that the nurse had taken of herself on her mobile phone in which she gave a thumbs up next to a patient who had died just moments before.
There are also reports that she had joked in the past about giving high does of potassium to seriously ill patients.
Chief prosecutor Alessandro Mancini told a press conference that the case was shocking.
“I can assure you in that all my professional years of seeing shocking photos, there were few such as these,” she said.
Details about the strange behaviour of Poggiali are now emerging with a former colleagues saying that the accused nurse was reported at one stage for giving laxatives to patients at the end of her shift to make work tougher for nurses working after her.
The investigation into 38 deaths linked to Poggiali has shocked not just the town but even the police.
Prosecutor Alessandro Mancini said that when police arrested her Poggiali seemed “unperturbed”.
We will keep you updated on the charges Daniela Poggiali faces.
Top Comments
If she were a nigger the press coverage would be next to nothing. They murder all the time is the point I was making.
I think it's very telling that there are so many ill informed comments on here about mental illness. Some of you should have watched the excellent programmes on the ABC last week. You might have a bit of insight into how mental illness affects people. Perhaps a few posts on the topic would be helpful, and less about the Batchelor. Hmmm?
What good is understanding mental illness when 38 people are now dead. Are you saying they would not be dead if more people understood her mental illness? How would this work? A simple understanding would prevent this murderous rampage? How could this have been different? Should we be alert to the possibility of every person we interact with having a mental illness? Even in our busy lives? Is that even possible? I don't understand what you ask of people.
No, that's not what I'm saying. I'm surprised that's what you took from the post, but it takes all sorts to make the world go round.
What I ask of people, anon, is that they avail themselves of the resources that might educate them about mental illness. I thought that was explicit, but obviously not.
As for your other questions - and you asked 7 of them - well, let's see. Perhaps if this nurse is mentally ill and more people were aware of this, then hey, perhaps 38 people might not be dead. Another point is that if some posters here knew more about mental illness their comments may have been more well informed.
How can a person tell if a medical professional who they've known all of 10 minutes has a mental illness? Educating yourself about mental illness until the cows come home won't make a scrap of difference in cases like this I'm afraid - because simply put, we cannot read minds.
Likewise, I also believe it takes all sorts to make the world turn.