By John Hall for MailOnline
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3032137/Nurse-Death-Vera-Maresova-admits-murdering-five-patients-potassium-injections.html#ixzz3XJ806uDP
A former nurse in the Czech Republic has admitted murdering six of her elderly patients with massive doses of potassium in order to ease her workload.
Vera Maresova, 50, confessed to killing five women and one man over a four-year period at a hospital in Rumburk - a small town in the north of the country.
Dubbed 'Nurse Death' by local media, Maresova was initially arrested over the death of a 70-year-old woman last August, but has now admitted killing five more people between 2010 and 2014 following a police investigation.
According to the prosecution, Maresova injected the potassium straight into the blood stream of her six elderly patients, which caused them to suffer heart failure and eventually death.
All of her victims were already in the intensive care unit at the hospital and it is believed Maresova thought their deaths would simply be attributed to natural causes.
Initially arrested last August for the death of one patient, a 70-year-old woman who died from potassium poisoning in June, Maresova subsequently admitted killing five others dating back to 2010.
In total her victims included five women and one man.
'All of her victims were elderly and needed intensive treatment,' a police spokesperson said.
'The woman who was supposed to care for them but instead killed them because she wanted to make life easier for herself,' he added.
'The terrible number of victims is six. We do not suspect the nurse committed any more murders';, he went on to say.
Prosecutor Frantisek Stibor said: 'She is not insane and knew exactly what she was doing. Therefore she is fit to stand trial.
'She used her knowledge of medicine to cause malfunctions in heart rhythms which led to heart failure and death.'
The first murder was in January 2010 and was followed by another at the end of 2011.
In April 2012 she killed her third victim and three more between February and June 2014.
Having confessed to the crime, 50-year-old Maresova now faces the prospect of spending the rest of her life in prison.
