A former Pennsylvania nurse, who is already facing charges in connection with the deaths of 16 patients, is now accused of delivering a lethal insulin dose to a 43-year-old diabetic man, according to a new lawsuit.
Heather Pressdee is accused of mistreating 22 patients at five different care facilities between 2020 and her arrest last May, according to the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office.
As Blaze News previously reported in November, the nurse allegedly administered excessive doses of insulin to 17 patients, who died.
According to a recent wrongful-death lawsuit, Pressdee subjected one of those patients, a 43-year-old diabetic patient named Nicholas Cymbol, to routine insults, berating, bullying, and abuse before providing him with a fatal dose of insulin last May at the Sunnyview Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Butler, Pennsylvania.
The complaint claims Pressdee exhibited “troubling and erratic behavior” while working at the center, which enabled her abuse to “pervade throughout the facility.”
The nurse allegedly prevented other staff members from feeding or providing water to Cymbol on several occasions.
Cymbol — who was described as a “brittle diabetic” — died at Sunnyview on May 1, 2023. Right before his death, Pressdee reportedly refused to call 911 for Cymbol’s medical emergency until confronted by other staffers.
Prior to Cymbol’s death, Pressdee allegedly told staff members that he was “going to be the next one to die anyway,” according to NBC News.
His cause of death was initially said to be a myocardial infarction.
However, an investigation by the Pennsylvania Office of the Attorney General found that Cymbol died because Pressdee administered a lethal dose of insulin.
The day Cymbol died, Pressdee was terminated by Sunnyview for abusive behavior toward patients and staff, according to the lawsuit.
After Cymbol’s death, Pressdee allegedly sent a sympathy card to his family saying, “Nick was one of a kind.”
Staffers at Sunnyview started to notice patients tended by Pressdee “were passing away unexpectedly and/or under suspicious circumstances, causing the nursing staff to believe Pressdee had involvement in their deaths,” the lawsuit states.
The suit accuses the Sunnyview Nursing and Rehabilitation Center of negligence and of “consistently fail[ing]” to train staff to recognize and report the abuse of residents.
The lawsuit questions the hiring practices of the center, noting that Pressdee worked at 10 medical facilities from 2018 to December 2022, and she was forced to resign or was terminated from each of those jobs due to “abusive tendencies and behavior toward residents and staff.”
The lawsuit was filed by the victim’s sister, Melinda Brown, who is the administrator of Cymbol’s estate. The suit seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages and demands a jury trial.
Last May, Pressdee was charged with the mistreatment of three patients.
In November, she was charged with two counts of first-degree murder, 17 counts of attempted murder, and 19 counts of neglect of a care-dependent person.
Pressdee remains in custody without bail. She is scheduled to appear in court on May 2.
Another wrongful death lawsuit filed in connection with nurse accused of killing patients
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Murder, Crime, Pennsylvania, Death nurse, Murder nurse, Pennsylvania crime, News
