Berlin
Charité cardiologist suspected of murder
After the death of two patients at the Charité in Berlin, a cardiologist is suspected of murder. photo
© Joerg Carstensen/dpa
He is said to have made himself the lord of life and death. Charges have been brought against a heart doctor in Berlin.
Around four months after his arrest for double Murder suspicion has been brought against a heart doctor at the Berlin Charité. The Berlin public prosecutor said that a nurse was also accused of suspected accessory to manslaughter in one of the crimes. The “Tagesspiegel” (online) had previously reported about it.
Specifically, the 56-year-old specialist in cardiology is accused of two murders insidious for base motives. The doctor is said to have killed one patient and one patient (both 73) with overdosed drugs in 2021 and 2022.
In the first case, the 56-year-old is said to have initially instructed four nurses to stop a resuscitation that was actually successful. He is also said to have instructed the 39-year-old co-defendant to give the patient a lethal amount of a sedative. However, contrary to expectations, he did not die from it. The cardiologist is said to have given the patient another, ultimately fatal dose himself. In the second case, the doctor is said to have given the patient several doses of a sedative without a medical reason.
“He is said not only to have exploited the suspicion and defenselessness of his victims, but also to have assumed, for selfish motives, that he could and should freely decide when his patients died,” the prosecutor said. Other patient files would be evaluated in a separate procedure. The question is whether the cardiologist could possibly be responsible for further deaths. The doctor has been in custody since May 8th.
According to its own statements, the Charité had already received an anonymous tip via a whistleblower system last summer. It was set up as a consequence of a previous series of murders by a nurse. That’s how the investigation got started.