Hospital worker injected herself with Death Row drug (From The Argus)

Hospital worker injected herself with Death Row drug

4:10pm Wednesday 2nd May 2012 in News

A hospital worker injected herself with stolen vials of the drug used to execute prisoners on America’s Death Row.

Monica Phillips stole vials of heavy-duty barbiturates – an anaesthetic used in surgery – from the operating theatre at Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath, where she worked.

Phillips, who was rushed to hospital and survived after injecting the drugs, claimed she attempted suicide because she was being bullied by her bosses.

However, an investigation found no evidence of bullying.

A Health Professional Council (HPC) hearing was told Phillips, who was “stressed” at the time of the incident, planned to use the drugs to kill herself, having also taken a canula, syringes and needles.

Now Phillips has been banned from working as an operating theatre practitioner after the hearing.

The HPC report investigating the circumstances states: “The panel was conscious that, in her written statements and the responses recorded as having been made by her at investigatory and disciplinary meetings, she has expressed remarkably little regret or remorse about her conduct.

“She has offered no apology and has not stated that she acknowledges that what she did was wrong.

“Instead, she has sought to blame those in management positions for the way in which she was treated.”

The HPC panel said that they could not accept this.

It was discovered that Phillips had taken the drugs after hospital officials checked on their supplies.

Sherree Fagge, the chief nurse at Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs the Princess Royal, said: “This was an extremely sad case but we fully investigated all allegations of bullying at the time and found these had absolutely no foundation in truth.”