• Life sentence for nurse after conviction for killing several patients to ease workload
• Investigations continue to identify additional potential victims

A nurse working in critical care in Germany has been sentenced to life imprisonment after being convicted of killing 10 patients and attempting to kill 27 others.

Prosecutors said the man, whose name has not been disclosed, injected his patients, most of them elderly, with painkillers in an effort to reduce his workload during night shifts.

The crimes took place between December 2023 and May 2024 at a hospital in the city of Wuerselen, western Germany, while investigators are currently examining several other suspicious cases from the nurse’s professional career.

The man had been working at the hospital since 2020 after completing his general nursing training in 2007.

Prosecutors told the court that the nurse showed “irritation” and a lack of empathy toward patients requiring higher levels of care, accusing him of playing the role of a “master of life and death.”

The court added that he injected patients with large doses of morphine and midazolam, a type of sedative, to make his night shifts easier.

He was arrested in 2024, and the court confirmed that the crimes reached a “particular severity of guilt,” barring early release after 15 years, with the possibility of appealing the verdict.

Prosecutors explained that exhumations are underway to identify additional potential victims, which could lead to a retrial.