Sunnyview Rehabilitation and Nursing Center has been sued by the families of two patients, alleging the patients died last year after getting unnecessary insulin injections from former nurse Heather Pressdee, who has been criminally charged in both cases.

The daughters of Irene E. Simons and Sandra L. Lincoln filed separate lawsuits last week against Sunnyview Operating LLC and Sunnyview Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in Butler Township. The Lincoln suit also names Premier Healthcare Management of New York as a defendant. The suit said Premier is an owner and management firm connected to Sunnyview.

The suits come after numerous other wrongful death suits have been filed against Sunnyview and other area nursing homes where Pressdee worked that implicate her in the deaths.

Pressdee has been linked to the deaths of 17 nursing home patients at five facilities and is being held in the Butler County Prison without bail on multiple counts of homicide and other charges dating from December 2020 through April 2023.

Lincoln was 82 when she died at Sunnyview on April 17, 2023, and Simons was 78 when she died March 24, 2023, at Sunnyview.

The state attorney general’s office charged Pressdee, 41, of Natrona Heights with neglect of a care-dependent person in connection with Lincoln’s death, and charged her with attempted homicide and neglect of a care-dependent person in connection with Simons’ death, according to the suits.

Lincoln was admitted to Sunnyview in January due to a decrease in strength and mobility from a hip fracture and was receiving treatment related to a tongue cancer diagnosis. She was a noninsulin-dependent diabetic, according to the suit.

Pressdee was hired as a unit manager earlier that month, and, according to the suit, Sunnyview knew or should have known she had worked at 10 nursing homes and medical facilities in Western Pennsylvania in four years and nine months before hiring her.

The suit claims Sunnyview would have learned Pressdee was investigated for abusive conduct toward patients or staff at each facility where she worked, and resigned or was terminated due to investigations into abusive behavior if it had conducted an investigation before hiring her.

At 7 a.m. April 17, a certified nursing assistant heard Pressdee say Lincoln “needed to die,” according to the suit. At 7:40 a.m., Pressdee called Lincoln’s daughter Tammy Dorenkamp, who filed the suit, and told her Lincoln was dying.

Pressdee then injected Lincoln with insulin and injected air into her catheter tube, according to the suit. Lincoln immediately developed respiratory or cardiopulmonary depression, which caused her to stop breathing, the suit alleges.

During the attorney general’s investigation, Pressdee admitted to administering insulin to Lincoln and injecting air into her tube to create an embolism, according to the suit.

The suit alleges corporate negligence, vicarious liability and wrongful death, and seeks unspecified damages and a jury trial.

The suit filed by Simons’ daughter, Elizabeth Ozella, contains similar allegations about Pressdee’s employment history as Dorenkamp’s suit, and includes purported information about two other patients who died in January and March.

Simons was admitted to Sunnyview in January with chronic hypoxemic respiratory failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, emphysema, pulmonary arterial high blood pressure and other conditions, but she was not diabetic, according to the suit.

Ozella visited Simons on March 24 and noted her mother was doing well, cognizant and speaking with family. Before going to her car for 15 to 30 minutes, Ozella told Pressdee to reposition Simons and give her a suppository, according to the suit.

It is alleged Pressdee injected Simons with 60 units of short-acting insulin after Ozella left, according to the suit.

When Ozella returned, she found Simons’ breathing was irregular and labored, and she asked Pressdee to check on her while she used the restroom, according to the suit. It is alleged Pressdee then injected Simons with another 60 units of short-acting insulin, according to the suit.

When Ozella returned, Pressdee told her Simons was dead as she was standing in the doorway with a medicine cart, according to the suit. Pressdee admitted to administering two doses of insulin to Simons, according to the suit.

Pressdee sent flowers with a note to Simons’ funeral, according to the suit.

The suit also alleges corporate negligence, vicarious liability and wrongful death, and seeks unspecified damages and a jury trial.

No one at Sunnyview was available Monday to discuss the suits.

A suit was filed against Sunnyview in March by the family of Nicholas Cymbol, 43, claiming Pressdee was escorted off the premises the same day Cymbol died from a lethal insulin injection. That suit also alleges Sunnyview failed to conduct an appropriate background check before hiring Pressdee.

Three similar suits have been filed against Belair Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center of Lower Burrell.

A suit and a homicide charge were filed against Pressdee in connection with the December 2022 death of an 83-year-old man at Quality Life Services in Donegal Township.

She also has been charged with killing or trying to kill patients at Concordia at Rebecca Residences in West Deer Township and Premier Armstrong Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in Kittanning.