It was a stunning admission: Charles Cullen, a nurse who worked at several hospitals in the Lehigh Valley and New Jersey, told investigators that he was responsible for up to 40 patient deaths.
Cullen’s statement to police 20 years ago this week spurred not only criminal charges but weeks of headlines as authorities reopened local investigations, probes that some hospitals had closed years earlier. His home in Bethlehem had been raided days before the charges. During his first appearance in Somerset County Superior Court in New Jersey, Cullen wanted to plead guilty. I don’t plan to fight this.
In a Dec. 16, 2003, story headlined Nurse says he killed dozens, The Express-Times ran a timeline of Cullen’s jobs from 1987 to 2003 — 10 jobs, each lasting a month to a few years, including the Lehigh Valley’s major hospitals: Warren Hospital in Phillipsburg; Easton Hospital in Wilson Borough; Lehigh Valley Hospital in Salisbury Township; St. Luke’s Hospital in Fountain Hill; Sacred Heart Hospital in Allentown; and others in New Jersey.
It was the death of a pastor in Somerset County, New Jersey, that finally ended Cullen’s career of death. Authorities said he administered toxic doses of drugs to alleviate patient pain and suffering.
Over the next several days, hospitals and prosecutors reopened old cases, and public officials questioned hospital hiring procedures. Stephen Lammers, a medical ethics expert at Lafayette College, told The Express-Times at the time that Cullen’s job-hopping likely reduced his risk of getting caught. Two deaths in a given unit in one year would not necessarily raise a red flag. Lammers predicted hospitals would reexamine their hiring practices.
There’s lots of ways things can go wrong, and this is the worst-case scenario, Lammers told The Express-Times in 2003.
This week in 2013, the effort to reopen Bushkill Park is not dead; it’s just in critical condition, its owner tells lehighvalleylive.com as costs mount. The park that first opened in 1902 was closed after three straight years of flooding in the mid-2000s and would not reopen until 2017.
This week in 2003, families of U.S. soldiers from the Lehigh Valley rejoice at news of Saddam Hussein’s capture in Iraq. It’s an early Christmas present for all of us and our troops, Army mom Kathy Swanson of Lower Mount Bethel Township tells The Express-Times.
This week in 1998, the bankrupt Hotel Bethlehem gets a new lease on life after it is sold at auction for $1.9 million to a group of local investors. Hotel B had been closed nearly a year and requires renovations, but the new ownership pledges to keep it a hotel. … Lafayette College considers dropping its football program, or dropping from Division I to Division III, as it considers how to make its athletics more competitive. Football and every sport is on the table here, college president Arthur Rothkopf tells The Express-Times.
This week in 1973, area truckers take part in a 48-hour nationwide truck stoppage to protest rising gas prices amid a global energy crisis. The stoppage follows a week after trucks blockaded highways including Route 22 and I-80.
This story is part of Lehigh Valley Then, a weekly feature that recalls historical headlines.
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