Heather Pressdee

A pair of brothers from Sarver are suing a Westmoreland County nursing home claiming a nurse, who is facing two homicide charges in Butler County, administered a lethal dose of insulin to their mother in 2021.

Scott and Gregory Hess filed the suit in September against Belair Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center of Lower Burrell and its parent company Guardian Healthcare of Brockway, Jefferson County.

The suit claims the state attorney general’s Bureau of Narcotics Investigation and Drug Control determined that nurse Heather Pressdee administered a lethal dose of insulin to their mother, Marianne Bower, who died at age 68 on Sept. 28, 2021, according to the suit.

The suit filed in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court seeks an unspecified amount of compensatory and punitive damages.

Pressdee, 40, of Natrona Heights, Allegheny County, was charged May 25 in Butler County by the attorney general’s office with two counts of criminal homicide, one count of criminal attempted homicide, three felony counts of neglect of a care of a dependent person and one count of aggravated assault, and three misdemeanor counts of reckless endangerment.

Pressdee is charged in connection to the deaths of a 55-year-old man and an 83-year-old man. The third victim, a 73-year-old man, survived after emergency hospitalization.

The family of the 83-year-old man, Joseph Leo Campbell, is suing Quality Life Services— Chicora where they claim Pressdee administered a nonprescribed insulin injection.

In the Allegheny County suit, the Hesses contend Belair and Guardian knew, or should have known, Pressdee was forced to resign or was terminated from six other health care facilities, including the Orchards of Saxonburg, between April 2019 and April 2021 for exhibiting abusive behavior toward residents and staff before hiring her as assistant director of nursing in April 2021.

Belair nursing staff, according to the suit, noticed the condition of residents with whom Pressdee spent significant amounts of time with would unexpectedly deteriorate.

Administrators were aware of those rumors, and, instead of investigating, disciplined and threatened to terminate those nurses if the rumors continued, according to the suit.

The state Department of Health began an investigation of Belair after discovering a pattern of residents with hyperglycemia and diabetic ketoacidosis from April to August 2021, according to the suit.

During an Aug. 21, 2021, interview with health department officials, Pressdee admitted to not calling doctors when a resident showed signs of hyperglycemia because the resident had been noncompliant with diabetic care, according to the suit.

The health department found Belair residents were in “immediate jeopardy” due to the staff’s failure to assess and document signs of hyperglycemia, notify doctors of acute condition changes and follow doctors’ orders, according to the suit.

Pressdee spent excessive amounts of time with residents with terminal diagnoses, including Bower, according to the suit. Bower’s condition began to unexpectedly deteriorate after Pressdee focused attention on her and she was hospitalized in mid-September, according to the suit.

Bower recovered to her baseline condition after several days in the hospital and was returned to Belair under Pressdee’s care, but her condition sharply declined during the week and a half following her return to the facility, according to the suit.

Following Pressdee’s termination from Belair in February 2022, the attorney general’s office charged Pressdee with the deaths of two residents at Quality Life Services on May 24 this year.

According to the suit, Pressdee admitted to injecting the Quality Life Services residents with insulin to kill them and admitted to injecting Bower with a lethal dose of insulin.

State Department of State Bureau of Professional and Occupational Affairs records show Pressdee’s registered nurse license was suspended in July this year.

The Hesses’ suit contains 15 counts of corporate negligence, vicarious liability and wrongful death against Belair and Guardian.

Neither the Hesses nor Guardian could be reached for comment.