Nurse Suspected Of Slaying 20 Patients Said She Added Disinfectant To Drips

A nurse suspected of killing 20 elderly patients at least in a Japan hospital has informed investigators that she added disinfectant to their intravenous drips shortly before completing her shifts because it was “a nuisance” to explain to relatives when an individual had perished during her working hours.

Ayumi Kuboki, 31, has been arrested on suspicion of slaying 88-year-old Sozo Nishikawa at Oguchi Hospital, in the city of Yokohama, south-west of Tokyo, in September 2016.

She is too being queried over the death of Nobuo Yamaki, also 88, two days later.

Since her detainment, Kuboki has admitted to law enforcement that she murdered the two men as well as “about 20 other patients” in her care, Asahi reported. Cops believe she designedly contaminated the patients’ intravenous drips with a disinfectant containing toxic benzalkonium chloride, killing the initial two victims in a matter of hours.

Kuboki has reportedly expressed to police that she desired to make sure that the patients succumbed when she was not on duty so she wouldn’t have to explain the conditions of their deaths to their families.

“It would be a nuisance if that responsibility fell on me,” Kuboki said.

Doctors had primitively believed Mr. Yamaki and Mr. Nishikawa had died of natural causes, although autopsies revealed disinfectant in their bodies.

Resulting investigations too found the cleaning agent in the bodies of a woman aged 78 and an 89-year-old man who had passed away around the same time.

Kuboki began working as a nurse in 2008 and united with Oguchi Hospital in 2015 after working at a differing healthcare facility.