LONDON - British police arrested a nurse on murder charges yesterday after three patients at the hospital where she works received saline contaminated with insulin and died.
Greater Manchester Police said they detained a 27-year-old woman, whom the Nursing and Midwifery Council identified as Rebecca Leighton, a registered nurse. It said she would be suspended “as quickly as possible.’’
Crime scene investigators were searching her apartment.
The contamination was discovered last week after a nurse at Stepping Hill Hospital in northwest England reported a higher-than-normal number of patients with unexplained low blood sugar levels.
Investigators are conducting tests to find out whether the deaths of a 44-year-old woman and two men aged 71 and 84 were caused by the sabotage. A fourth man is in critical condition, and 10 other patients fell ill but recovered.
Security has been stepped up at the hospital, 150 miles northwest of London.
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