A trial is starting today in Oldenburg to clarify why nurse Niels H. was able to kill unnoticed for so long
Could Niels H. also kill so many people because the management of the clinics had remained idle for too long? This is one of many questions that the jury chamber of the district court of Oldenburg will take on in a trial that begins today, Thursday. In connection with the actions of the former nurse, who was sentenced to life imprisonment for 85 murders in June 2019, the Oldenburg public prosecutor’s office has brought charges against former leading employees of the Oldenburg Clinic and the former St. Josef Foundation. The procedure is initially scheduled for 42 days of negotiations.
On the Oldenburg side, the then managing director of the clinic, a former medical director and a nursing service manager of the cardio-surgical intensive care unit and a former nursing director have to answer. The public prosecutor accuses them of aiding and abetting killing by omission in three counts. On the Delmenhorst side, two senior physicians and a deputy head of the intensive care unit take a seat in the dock. For the two senior physicians, it is each a homicide. In the case of the deputy intensive care unit nurse, the public prosecutor comes up with five killings, two as an attempt.
Originally, the former head of the nursing station was also charged. The jury chamber separated his proceedings because the man was “not fit to stand trial for the next three to six months” due to illness, the district court announced. In addition, the relative of a deceased has joined the proceedings as a joint plaintiff.
Deeds are partly 20 years ago
Some of the incidents date back more than 20 years. The three killings by Niels H. are said to have taken place in November 2001 while he was working at the Oldenburg Clinic. For Delmenhorst, the public prosecutor’s office and the investigators are assuming that the crime took place in May and June 2005. All this only came into focus in 2015 in the course of the investigations against H.
The detectives of the special commission (Soko) “Kardio”, which was formed in 2014, questioned numerous witnesses, had several bodies exhumed and took drug samples. The investigators were primarily dependent on the information provided by Niels H., whom they interviewed as a witness in this case. However, not all of the dead could be exhumed because some had been cremated.
Up to the present, the incidents do not seem to radiate. For example, the Oldenburg defendants are no longer employed at the clinic, says spokeswoman Sigrid Juergensmann. The current employees are not exposed to allegations. If it does happen, the hospital is prepared.
The staff in Delmenhorst is also looking towards Oldenburg with excitement. For you and your colleagues, the situation is different than for the Oldenburg Clinic. When asked, spokeswoman Tomke Tammerl wrote in an email: “The Delmenhorst Clinic, which was the scene of these crimes, has not existed in this form for a long time. It merged with the St.-Josef-Stift in 2016.”
Hs murders have an impact on politics: In order to prevent such acts, the revised Lower Saxony Hospital Act has been in force since January 1, 2019. The “legal obligations” include the introduction of an anonymous error reporting system and regular so-called mortality and morbidity conferences. Since January 2022, there must also be ward pharmacists in every clinic.
