A male nurse in Wuerzburg, western Germany, has been sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering 10 patients and attempting to kill 27 others by administering excessive doses of sedatives and painkillers. Prosecutors said the nurse, whose identity has not been made public under German privacy laws, committed the crimes between December 2023 and May 2024 to “lighten his night workload” by sedating or killing patients under his care.
According to reports, the victims were mostly elderly and vulnerable patients at a local hospital where the nurse had been employed since 2020. The Aachen Regional Court found him guilty on multiple counts of murder and attempted murder, describing his actions as “particularly severe,” which drastically limits the possibility of parole. In Germany, individuals sentenced to life imprisonment are eligible for review after 15 years, but such cases can be deemed too grave to allow early release.
The nurse, who completed his nursing training in 2007, was arrested in 2024 after colleagues and hospital authorities grew suspicious over an unusual spike in patient deaths during his shifts. Subsequent toxicology reports revealed that several patients had died due to overdoses of sedatives and painkillers that had not been prescribed in their medical charts.
Prosecutors told AFP that investigators are continuing to probe additional suspicious deaths linked to the same hospital. Exhumations of several deceased patients have been ordered to determine whether the nurse may have had more victims, which could lead to fresh charges and a second trial.
The case has drawn chilling parallels with that of Niels Högel, a former nurse convicted in 2019 for killing at least 85 patients at hospitals in Oldenburg and Delmenhorst between 1999 and 2005. Högel, who became known as Germany’s deadliest serial killer, had claimed he administered fatal doses of drugs to induce cardiac arrest and then tried to resuscitate his victims to impress colleagues.
Like Högel, the Wuerselen nurse appeared to display a disturbing disregard for human life, prosecutors said, adding that his motive — to reduce workload rather than seek recognition — made the crimes “even more cold-blooded.”
The Aachen court spokesperson confirmed that the ruling can still be appealed, but the “severity of guilt” clause means the man is unlikely to be considered for parole for decades. The verdict has reignited debate in Germany about hospital oversight, medical accountability, and patient safety, with calls for stricter monitoring of staff behaviour and medication logs in healthcare facilities.
