In Bayeux, a nurse admitted to having poured a powerful sedative into a coffee maker in her department. By intoxicating herself, the woman who wanted to rest also poisoned several of her colleagues.
She wanted to “sleep.” In the grip of great fatigue, a nurse from the Bayeux hospital center (Calvados) confessed to a gesture that was strange and dangerous to say the least. The 49-year-old woman admitted to having poured a sedative medication into a coffee maker in the break room of her department on June 19.
While two nurses and two nursing assistants at the hospital felt unwell after drinking coffee, the suspect, taken into police custody on Monday, claimed to have poured two 50 mg ampoules of Hypnovel into the drink. She says she stole it the same day.
Immediately, a link was “established with the disappearance of several ampoules of medication, including Hypnovel, in a SMUR vehicle in Bayeux, on June 9” then in a hospital department on June 19, indicated the public prosecutor of Caen, Joël Garrigue.
Although the victims quickly regained consciousness after receiving appropriate treatment, tests revealed the presence of Midazolam in their urine and in the coffee pot, an anesthetic contained in Hypnovel. For her part, the nurse said she “was very tired and did this because she wanted to sleep”, without however explaining why she decided to pour the anesthetic into the coffee pot rather than into her cup, when she knew that others would consume it.
Similar poisonings in 2017
Recent investigations have made a connection with similar illnesses that occurred in October 2017, again following the consumption of coffee by hospital agents. According to the Caen prosecutor, “the exploitation of the various schedules made it possible to identify one of the nurses of the establishment as having been present during the two drug thefts” and during the illnesses of 2017 and June 19.
In addition, video surveillance images revealed that, on June 19, the 49-year-old nurse remained for several minutes in the rest room where the contaminated coffee was located, which she then drank in the company of her three colleagues.
While a judicial investigation “on the counts of poisoning, administration of harmful substances and theft” was opened, the nurse was referred this Wednesday to the public prosecutor’s office, who requested her placement in pre-trial detention.
