Respiratory therapist pleads guilty in deaths of 2 patients at Missouri hospital
Jennifer Hall, a former respiratory therapist, pleaded guilty in the deaths of two patients at a Missouri hospital more than two decades ago.
Hall, 42, pleaded guilty on Friday to first-degree involuntary manslaughter counts in the deaths of 75-year-old Fern Franco and 37-year-old David Wesley Harper, who died in 2002 when they were patients at Hedrick Medical Center in Chillicothe, according to the Kansas City Star. Hall also pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree assault.
Chillicothe is roughly 90 miles northeast of Kansas City.
Hall was originally charged with two counts of first-degree murder but agreed to the lesser charges as part of the plea.
When Hall worked at the hospital between December 2001 and May 2002, there were nine deaths considered “medically suspicious” and 18 “Code Blue” cardiac arrests, up from an average of one per year.
An autopsy revealed Franco had morphine and succinylcholine, a powerful muscle relaxant, in her system despite not being prescribed either. Both drugs would have caused her to suffocate.
A number of hospital staff suspected Hall was involved since she was in close proximity to Franco, had access to pharmaceuticals and notified staff of every cardiac emergency, according to court documents.
Harper also had succinylcholine in his system and Hall reportedly had a vial of the drug in her pocket at the time of his death four weeks prior. Hall was placed on administrative leave days after Franco’s death but was not charged until May 2022.
Both Franco and Harper had initially been hospitalized for pneumonia.
Families of several of the patients who died during Hall’s employment sued the hospital for wrongful deaths in 2010, but the lawsuit was dismissed after the state supreme court ruled the statute of limitations had expired for civil action.
With News Wire Services
