The 44-year-old male nurse who worked in a hospital in Wuerselen, western Germany, has been accused of playing “master of life and death” with the patients he was supposed to care for. Prosecutors presented evidence that he injected dozens of mostly elderly patients with large doses of sedatives or painkillers like morphine and midazolam, a muscle relaxant sometimes used for executions in the US, with the simple and petty goal of making his nightshifts easier.

The defendant, whose identity has not been made public, testified in court that he had simply tried to put his patients to sleep because “sleep is the best medicine,” and claimed that he had no idea the drugs he used would be so lethal. 

Prosecutors accused the nurse, who had been working at the hospital since 2020, of showing no motivation and no enthusiasm while performing his duties, and showing a complete lack of empathy towards the sick patients in his care. Their investigation found that the patients who needed the most care only irritated him.

A Court in the city of Aachen recently convicted the male nurse to life in prison without parole for the murder of at least 10 patients and the attempted murder of 27 others between December 2023 and May 2024, but investigators are reportedly looking into several other suspicious cases during his medical career.