Czech’s shocked by hospital killings
A It was a news report that sent
shivers down people’s spines. Since May 2006 a 30-year old nurse had
killed eight people and attempted to kill at least nine more at a hospital in
eastern Bohemia’s
Havlíčkův Brod. There is no indication that his motive was euthanasia – none of
the people he killed were suffering from a terminal illness and they were all
expected to recover.
B When thirty year old Petr Zelenka started work at the Havlíčkův Brod
Hospital as a nurse he seemed
like the ideal employee – devoted, enthusiastic and willing to work overtime
whenever needed. In his spare time he studied to improve his knowledge of
medicine, particularly his knowledge of pharmaceuticals. When he was promoted
to a head nurse on night shifts he started applying his knowledge in practice.
On nights when he was in charge the entire intensive care unit was in his hands
– and he started injecting his victims with heparin – a blood-thinning drug
causing internal bleeding when administered in large doses.
Milan Juško who heads the
investigation told the media he was certain that the nurse had not been acting
as an angel of mercy: “This had
nothing to do with euthanasia – this was carefully plannedmurder.”
C The hospital’s head physician Pavel Longin says that the higher number
of cases in which patients died as a result of internal haemorrhaging alerted him to the fact that something was wrong: “We
were investigating who was on duty at the time. I thought it might be two or
three nurses who were new and inexperienced. I thought we would have to watch
them very carefully but instead we found that nurse Zelenka figured in every
single case and that was definitely very suspect.” The hospital sacked Zelenka
in September and reported the incident to the police almost a month later. The
nurse, who had in the meantime began work at a hospital in a different Czech
town - in Jihlava, was arrested on December 1. There is no indication that he
had managed to commit any murders at his new workplace.
D Now, many are questioning how the perpetrator
was able to get away with it the long four months – why did it take so long for
the hospital and the police to act? The hospital’s director has since been sacked and an investigation is underway to assess whether the police
could have sped up the arrest.
E With eight murders and at least nine attempted murders to his name
Zelenka could face anything between 15 years in prison and a life sentence.
This is one area where the suspect has shown emotion: surprise that in the end
he was caught.
dose – dávka
haemorrhaging – krvácení
mercy – milosrdenství
perpetrator – pachatel
sack – propustit ze zaměstnání
sent shivers down people’s spines – leze z toho mráz po zádech
to speed up – urychlit
underway – na cestě
1) Read the article and match each of the headings to a paragraph.
1 Why did it last so long
to find the perpetrator?
2 Petr Zelenka – a devoted
nurse or a murderer?
3 Sentence for Zelenka
4 Pavel Longin was
searching for the perpetrator
5 Introduction
2) Read the article again and answer the questions.
1 What is the article about?
2 Who is Petr Zelenka?
3 What did he do?
4 How did Pavel Longin
search for the perpetrator?
5 What could be the
sentence?
3) Explain the following words.
1 euthanasia
2 terminal illness
3 victim
4 nurse
5 attempted murder
4) Answer the following questions.
What is euthanasia? Where
can it be applied? Should it be legal? And why? What are types of euthanasia?
