This was a flashback from last Thursday (6 Oct) that talked about a local
event that happend in the 70's and 80's. I thought it was interesting because it
was in Cincinnati and you just don't expect stuff like this to hit home. http://crime.about.com/od/serial/a/Donald-Harvey-The-Angel-Of-Death.htm
also,
We referenced Jonestown a few weeks ago, but you all probably don't know what happened there:
http://entertainment.salon.com/2011/10/10/a_thousand_lives_what_really_happened_in_jonestown/singleton/?mobile.html
also,
We referenced Jonestown a few weeks ago, but you all probably don't know what happened there:
http://entertainment.salon.com/2011/10/10/a_thousand_lives_what_really_happened_in_jonestown/singleton/?mobile.html
I was completely surprised by the news article posted by Anne. Like she said, I always knew things like this happened, but I just never thought it could occur near the places I lived. I am shocked by how long he was able to continue his killing spree and how many people he was able to kill before anyone found him out. When asked how he got away with it, I was given chills by his answer regarding doctors not always checking their patients after their deaths. When performing clinical rotations in the hospitals, I am always shocked by how busy the doctors and nurses are and how much they are expected to do. It seems that something like this could easily occur in a hospital, especially with the elderly, where sickness and death are the norm. No one would think to question murder or poisoning. He also seemed to express no remorse for his crimes, totaling 70 murders. Even in his picture for the newspaper, he is smiling. Coming from a profession where one’s main duty is to help others, I cannot understand this man or fathom his ability to commit so many murders.
ReplyDeleteI am really glad that Anne posted this article, I found it very interesting. I also found the article very disgusting, and scary at the same time. I know that there are people like this all around us, but for him to live in Butler County really worries me because I live in Butler County, and I have visited patients at Drake Hospital. Michelle said some things about nursing that I completely agree with and when reading this article everything just didn't add up or maybe there were some details left out. It really surprises me that the hospital would just offer a "orderly" job to a man who is helping his grandfather and then allow him to administer medications. I know for our nursing program, we have to take a test and get a certain score in order to pass meds during our clinical rotation. But hearing all the things that he did and just the man in general, I would describe him as a very sick human being. I don't have any idea how someone could act that way, but I know there are many serial killers in the world. And to not be bothered by murdering 70 people just blows my mind, that is not normal. In my opinion, he deserves to be killed.
ReplyDeletefrom Jenny:
ReplyDeleteOctober Current Events, re: Jonestown: I was a kid in elementary school when the Jonestown tragedy occurred, and I think my mother must have had a book that came out just afterward; I remember sneaking in a few paragraphs and being horrified, and later, bewildered at the way so many people so willingly abandoned all reason to blindly follow Jim Jones. Cult mentality is astonishing; I wonder what the members of Jones' congregation had in common, what qualities they shared that made them all susceptible to a madman. I'd be interested in reading this new book. There was also a made-for-tv movie about the Jonestown massacre, starring Powers Booth as the Reverend Jones, and it was creepy.
Like Brittany and Michelle said, this article is very disturbing and scary. I really hope that things have changed since the 70s-80s, but like Michelle said it is surprising how much the nurses and doctors are expected to do. I agree with Brittany in that I find it hard to believe that a hospital would just offer someone an orderly job and allow them to administer medications. I hope this shows how much things have changed since then, and hospitals now don’t allow someone that isn’t a nurse or doctor to insert catheters and administer medications with no supervision or follow-up. I also can’t believe that he confessed to being a murderer the night he was arrested for burglary, but they couldn’t find evidence so he just had to face the burglary charges. That is crazy to me because so many lives could have been saved if he would have been stopped right then. Especially since he admitted it! The fact that he was able to be fired from Marymount Hospital on burglary charges, sent home from the U.S. Air Force because of suicide attempts, and then given another job at a hospital in Lexington is ridiculous. I also can’t believe that police did not figure out that five people that were associated to Donald Harvey died suddenly by arsenic poisoning in their food. As if that wasn’t enough, a security guard found a gun in his gym bag and didn’t document it, so he was able to go out with a clean work record and get another job as a nurse’s aide at the Cincinnati Drake Memorial Hospital. This whole article just really amazes me that the hospitals and police were so naïve. I really hope that things have changed since then.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Brittany and Michelle. I find this article very disturbing and gruesome. I believe that the cops did a poor job of convicting Donald Harvey. I believe that the cops could have convicted him a lot earlier than they did if they would have done more research into the death cases. I also was very shocked that Donald Harvey was able to administer medications and start IVs to patients when he worked as an orderly. I am very glad that today for one to administer medications or start an IV they have to be a Nurse or a Doctor.
ReplyDeletefrom Megan:
ReplyDeleteIt truly amazed me that this killer was not discovered sooner. Despite that he had killed so many individuals in a short time. I think the article stated that he had killed as many as 15 people in just a 10 month time period, in addition to many other murders. From the article, it sounded like many of these murders were not done discreetly either and so it was pure neglect on behalf of the staff that this man was not stopped. Perhaps what disturbed me the most was that the hospital offered this man the position that gave him access to all these patients because he was simply there at the hospital so frequently. It kind of just reminds you that a killer can come in many different forms and come from anywhere.
A poet & author discusses, among other things, surviving the death of a loved one.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.npr.org/2011/10/20/141502211/poet-marie-howe-on-what-the-living-do-after-loss
I agree with what everyone else has said so far and don't want to repeat anything. But in addition to everyone else's comments, I also found the fact that everyone thought he was just being a nice guy. He must have seemed concerned about his grandfather and good with patient. Its very disturbing that someone who appeared to be doing good to so many people was really a disturbed man killing so many people. Just as Megan said: "It kind of just reminds you that a killer can come in many different forms and come from anywhere."
ReplyDeleteThis article of the guy in Cincinnati and Kentucky is very disturbing to me. I am not studying to be a nurse and I am not totally sure of all of the functions in the hospital, but I can totally see how this could happen. A family friend of mine is currently a resident and it is a law that Doctor’s are not allowed to work over 80 hours, I am not sure if this is everywhere but he works in Kentucky. Anyways they asked him to lie and to continue to work over 80 hours. So it is apparent that they may not have time to look at all the patient information and see that it is irregular for those patients to die. But as for the people he murdered outside of the workplace that doesn’t seem right that no one suspected him, especially if he had relationships or disagreements with those people. I never expected something like this to happen and to have no remorse over it is sickening. This article made me realize that a lot of people need help in the world and how very different my life is compared to someone like this serial killer. This has made me wonder if this is still happening, if this is the reason some of my family members have passed away. I hope this is no longer the case. Interesting article, but very hard to read and grasp of how someone could do this.
ReplyDeleteI think the most interesting and disturbing part of the article that Anne posted was that Harvey was well liked and never showed any remorse. He even kept a diary about his killings and he felt as if he was releasing an "inner monster". To think that he felt he had the power to decide who lived and who died is completely disturbing. This was the case because a patient angered him or simply because he did not like that particular patient? There is always one patient that can get under a nurses skin and can anger a nurse but is that reason enough for the nurse to decide that they should no longer be able to live? No!
ReplyDeleteI think that these articles bring up good questions about mental health in todays society. How often are mentally sick people over looked or denied help? How could someone like these two men get away with such disturbing acts? It really was interesting to me that Donald could continue to work at hospitals when he was charged for burglary and admitted to being a killer. It was even more surprising that no one thought it was suspicious that he was always there when pt.'s died. I agree with everyone when they say its scary to think that people like Donald exist in real life.
ReplyDeleteI found the article on Donald Harvey very disturbing. The one question that I had was how was Harvey able to keep getting jobs in healthcare? I also thought that the police did a poor job in investigating the murders of the people he killed outside the job. Although I can agree that doctors and nurses are busy, you would think after deaths continued to occur, someone would look into the reasoning behind them. Some deaths might be because of old age but I would have to believe that there would have been some sort of red flag when he was on his killing spree.
ReplyDeleteI had never heard of Donald Harvey before reading the article above, which is very frightening to me. I believe our area should be more aware of this history and know that it is possible to happen in our backyard. While reading the article, I was impressed and disgusted that Harvey was able to slip under the radar for so many years without being detected for his murders. He mentioned that doctors are overworked and usually do not follow-up on their patients after death. I was wondering if anything has changed about that situation since these incidents have occurred. I would think that the hospitals would be more responsible of knowing how their patients die. It would be suspicious to me if a bunch of patients just died “in their sleep.” What also disgusts me is how poisons were so accessible to him without him being investigated. I blame the hospitals for allowing this to go on for so long. They should have a duty to their patients to protect and also know what is occurring. Harvey was killing all these people just because he could get away with it. If it was not so easy to get away with, I doubt he would have killed as many as he did.
ReplyDeleteI was shocked when I read this article. Like some others have posted I have heard that this kind of think happens in the world but did not really expect it to ever happen close to where we live. The further I read into it the more sick I felt wondering how that man could have gotten away with crimes like this for so ofter. Working in a hospital setting I have also witnessed how extremely busy the doctors and nurses can be and can almost see how a death like this could occur. I would find it difficult though that twenty, or almost thirty, of them could occur in a one year time frame and no suspicions arise. I find this even harder to believe when people outside of the hospitals in his personal life began to die as well; you think that someone would have made the connection. I think that it definitely takes a sick and insane person to commit murders like this. It is not up to any one person to play God. We do not get to decide whether someone lives or dies because we feel powerful and think that it is fun or interesting. I thought that it was particularly disturbing that the man kept a journal. He enjoyed killing so much that he wrote everyone down and could not stop himself from doing it. Even when he confessed to the murders he felt no remorse. I feel like there were definitely red flags going up when all of these deaths occurred; there had to be. I think that it is the responsibility of the doctors, other hospital staff, and administration to pay close attention to their patients and at least recognize a problem before it is able to be carried out to this extent.
ReplyDelete