Former nurse Heather Pressdee was sentenced after she plead guilty to three counts of first-degree murder charges and 19 counts of attempted murder. Molly Miller/Butler Eagle

The Eagle has for several months been covering the saga of former registered nurse and convicted murderer Heather Pressdee.

Pressdee, 41, of Natrona Heights, was sentenced Thursday, May 2, to serve three consecutive life sentences followed by 380 to 760 years in prison in a plea agreement in which she pleaded guilty to three counts of first-degree murder and 19 counts of attempted murder filed by the attorney general’s office. Prosecutors said she injected her nursing home patients with insulin or air to create air embolisms.

In last weekend’s edition of the Eagle, staff reporter Eddie Trizzino walked us through some thoughts shared by lawmakers on the future handling of such situations.

As reported, further incidents like it couldn’t be entirely prevented by legislation. But there’s opportunity for reform to minimize such situations.

In Trizzino’s story, Rep. Stephenie Scialabba, R-12th, said she voted against a bill that would limit employers from accessing background checks for potential hires.

“This is a serious crime, and small things lead to big things,” Scialabba said of Pressdee. “You have a right to know who you are hiring, and when you are dealing especially in the health sector, you want to know that your loved one is being treated properly by good people.”

The organizations that employed Pressdee — and any other organization that includes positions involving medication distribution — absolutely must perform deep and thorough background checks on prospective employees.

This is not to say due diligence was not performed in the hiring of Pressdee by the many facilities that employed her. This is to say the future of such facilities is changed by the actions of Pressdee.

Such facilities are now incentivized to be more thorough in their background checks because of a flurry of lawsuits filed by the families of those lost to Pressdee’s actions against the facilities where they died.

State Rep. Aaron Bernstine, R-8th, said at a legislative breakfast Friday morning, May 3, that cutting down on the time it takes to catch people committing crimes is key, which is an issue that legislators could bring to Harrisburg.

“It’s just about creating a system that catches them faster … To act like something like this will never happen again is just not true,” Bernstine said. “We consistently try to pass bills, sometimes in Harrisburg that are reactionary. This does need to be looked at and evaluated, and we’re going to be making sure we are doing this is some manner that doesn’t penalize good working people.”

Sadly, this is a reactionary situation. It’s not easy to predict every situation. Maybe one of the bills Bernstine wants to see could mandate the necessary deep and thorough background checks discussed above.

After all, the very least you should expect is, as Scialabba said, “to know that your loved one is being treated properly by good people.”

— RJ