"Angel of Death's" Euthanasia Toll May Never be Known
Source: Reuters; March 14, 2002

Los Angeles, CA -- A former Los Angeles hospital worker who described
himself as the "angel of death" pleaded guilty on Tuesday to six counts of
murdering elderly patients, but investigators said they would never know
how many others may have died at his hands.

Efren Saldivar, 32, who admitted giving terminally ill patients lethal
injections, also admitted to one count of attempted murder in a plea
bargain that will spare him the death penalty. He is expected to be
sentenced to life in prison without parole when he returns to Los Angeles
Superior court in April.

Saldivar was first arrested in 1998, when he confessed to killing more
than 40 patients at Glendale Adventist Medical Center over a five-year
period in the 1990s. He was released but rearrested a year ago after
extensive investigations by police who exhumed 20 bodies for tissue tests.

"This will serve as a deterrent to others who might harbor the misguided
belief that such conduct in a hospital setting is either ethical or
legal," Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley told reporters after
the court hearing.

The Glendale police task force investigating the case discovered that more
than 1,000 patients had died on Saldivar's shifts at the hospital or
within an hour of when he was on duty, according to a report in the Los
Angeles Times.

But prosecutors said on Tuesday the number of people killed by Saldivar
during his time at the hospital was "pure conjecture."

"I don't think we'll ever know. Mr. Saldivar has told so many different
stories--I killed people, I didn't kill people," said lead prosecutor
Albert MacKenzie.

"What I know is what we can prove in a court of law and that is six
murders and one attempted murder," he told reporters.

MacKenzie said Saldivar had given various motives for his actions
including "feeling sorry for elderly people who are in dire circumstances
who are on 'do not resuscitate' orders, whose quality of life is
diminished substantially."

"It is our view that Mr. Saldivar was not the one to choose when they
should die and that some of these people would have made it out of the
hospital," MacKenzie said.

Jean Coyle, 59, the patient who Saldivar admitted attempting to kill, was
revived and was to have been a star witness at Saldivar's trial. The other
six were in their 70s and 80s.

Saldivar admitted giving the patients Pavulon, a drug that stops people
from breathing that is normally given to patients who are going to be
placed on a respirator. Five of the six who died were not given the drug
as part of their regular treatment.

The families of those who died were informed of the plea bargain on
Monday. Prosecutors said they were relieved that the case had been settled
without a lengthy and distressing trial.

Prosecutors said they had decided not to press for the death penalty
because of the complexity of the scientific evidence, and because US
juries were traditionally reluctant to return a death penalty in such
cases.

"Juries generally do not return the death penalty in these types of
case...They (defendants) are generally looked upon as emotionally tweaked,
not insane," said MacKenzie.