A doctor accused of killing patients to free up hospital beds could be to blame for more than 300 deaths in Curitiba, Brazil. Virginia Soares de Souza is said to have “played God,” administering fatal doses of a muscle relaxant or cutting off patients’ life support. If confirmed it would mean she would have claimed even more victims than Hyde GP Harold Shipman, who killed at least 215 patients before he hanged himself in 2004. De Souza, who worked at Hospital Evangelico in Curitiba, south Brazil, was initially accused over the deaths of seven patients. But the number soared as checks were made on those who had died in her care over the last seven years. Investigator Dr Mario Lobato said: “We are looking at nearly 300 cases. In one a patient asked a nurse for a cup of water, yet by the time she returned he had died.” |
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