A former nursing aide at a Veterans Affairs hospital in West Virginia pleaded guilty July 14 to seven counts of second-degree murder and one count of assault with the intent to commit murder, the U.S. Justice Department said.
Reta Mays, 46, admitted to killing seven patients by injecting them with lethal doses of insulin, causing their blood sugar to drop to dangerously low levels. The patients died of hypoglycemia. Ms. Mays also admitted to injecting insulin into an eighth patient, who didn't die.
Ms. Mays worked at the Louis A. Johnson Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Clarksburg during the night shift from 2015 to 2018 in a ward that housed many diabetic patients. But nursing aides are not authorized to administer medications, including insulin, to patients at the VA hospital, prosecutors said.
Ms. Mays faces up to life in prison for each count of second-degree murder and up to 20 years in prision for the assult with the intent to commit murder, the Justice Department said.