Texas Hospital Homicides?

The bodies of 10 patients who may have been lethally drugged while hospitalized will be exhumed, authorities said.

In all, about two dozen patients at Nocona General Hospital may have been given lethal doses of Mivacron, or mivacurium chloride, which is used to temporarily stop the breathing process in order to insert a breathing tube.

Montague County District Attorney Tim Cole said investigators plan to perform autopsies on the bodies to be exhumed next week in several cities across North Texas to determine the cause of death and detect any traces of the drug.

"What we've done is select the 10 that we believe are the best candidates for exhumation and autopsy at this point," Cole said.

Several vials of the drug were reported missing from the 38-bed hospital in late January. Hospital officials then realized the number of deaths in December and January was twice the norm, and occurred on the same shift.

No one has been arrested, but Cole said the investigation points to one suspect who likely acted alone. A former nurse has been named in two civil lawsuits filed by the families of two patients who died.

Some families said the decision to allow a relative's body to be exhumed was difficult but necessary.

"We buried him once, and now we'll have to do it again," said Carol J. James, whose 87-year-old father died at the hospital Dec. 24. "There is no closure right now."

She and her ten siblings have filed suit against the hospital and the former nurse.

In a March news release, officials said the probe included "possible illegal activities" by a former hospital employee. It's unclear why the employee left the hospital. Hospital administrator Charles E. Norris said he could not comment on personnel matters.

State hospital standards require Mivacron to be readily available, so limiting the staff's access would have been considered negligent, Norris said.

"The hospital is still focused on patient care," he said. "Initially there was some shock in the community, some concern that things weren't being watched. But I've seen a 180-degree turn. They realize that if anything did happen, this was the act of a criminal mind."

The hospital is the only medical facility in Nocona, an agriculture and oil town of about 3,100 people some 40 miles east of Wichita Falls.

By Angela K. Brown
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