Corruption and maleficence: These are not words which should be associated with the medical community. However, as years passed, these two words have become more prominent in the factors as to why people tend to not trust physicians. How are we meant to trust them if nurses like the Lainz angels of death are still strutting around in public despite being suspected of killing over 200 patients? People already lack trust in general, we don’t need to add doctors to the list!
4 nurse’s aids: Maria Gruber, Irene Leidolf, Stephanija Meyer, and Waltraud Wagner propelled their killing spree in the Lainz general hospital in Austria from 1983 to 1989. This hospital was responsible for the care of the elderly which were mentally ill or required special attention due to terminal illnesses. The killings were done through the overdosing of patients using tranquillisers (a drug that can calm and soothe people as well as make them sleep), most commonly morphine. As the practice accelerated, this later morphed into holding the patient’s head and pinching their nose whilst the other nurse poured water down their throat. This sadistic method was called the ‘water-cure’. It took roughly 45 minutes to an hour for the victim to drown, unless they were already critical. I guess we could give the nurses kudos for their creativity, right? It’s common for the elderly to have fluid in their lungs, the drownings would be undetectable making these deaths look normal in the eyes of the doctors.
Waltraud Wagner, an aid at 24 years old, was the mastermind behind the killings and came up with the ‘water-cure'. This started when she gave a 77-year-old a morphine overdose, requested by the patient to end their agony. Wagner then proceeded to involve the rest of the 3 aids after she discovered the satisfaction that the power of killing patients brought her, she’s known as the ‘leader’ of this unethical practice. Killing the patients then turned into a murder game. If a patient was of any disturbance: dead. This amused the angels and as time went on, they would have drinks near the hospital in order to relive these ‘exhilarating’ moments. They were drunk on power, and that led to their downfall. Another doctor had overheard their conversations and informed the police, which then started yet another 6-week investigation. The angels were then arrested.
Aids are not meant to treat patients. They are there to support the nurses and doctors by doing certain tasks appointed by the physicians, they were not legally allowed to administer drugs to their patients as they were not properly trained to do so, leading us to question the hospital’s ability to acknowledge their practitioners. The hospital was unable to identify the heightened death rates that came along with the Lainz angels of death. Concerns were even raised about the aids, but the hospital ceased to do anything about them as they wanted to protect their image. The hospital could have prevented 22 confessed killings if they had allowed an investigation earlier so could this also partially be the hospital’s fault? Could they have stopped this?
Despite this being known as one of the most gruesome crimes in Austria’s history, Wagner and Leidolf were released from prison on good behaviour in 2008 whilst the other two were released a few years earlier and were later given new identities, sparking an outrage in the Austrian population as to why the government would allow this. Kind of ironic, isn’t it? Our saviours turning into our killers.
Bibliography
Happyscribe. 30 Dec. 2020, www.happyscribe.com/public/medical-murders/the-lainz-angels-of-death. Accessed 15 June 2023.
Mentalfloss. 12 Oct. 2017, www.happyscribe.com/public/medical-murders/the-lainz-angels-of-death. Accessed 15 June 2023.
Vocal Media. Nicole Gibson, 2021, vocal.media/criminal/the-lainz-angels-of-death. Accessed 15 June 2023.
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