CARSON : Ex-Nurse Pleads Guilty to Inducing 2 Patients’ Comas
An ex-Carson nurse who claimed that she caused two patients to go into insulin-induced comas so she could be sent to prison and get help for her headaches pleaded guilty Thursday to federal charges.
Lissette Nukida, 35, was charged with 16 counts of tampering with consumer products for injecting insulin into two women patients’ intravenous solutions. She pleaded guilty to five counts, said Assistant U.S. Atty. Mark Larsen.
U.S. District Judge John Davies is scheduled to sentence Nukida, who faces up to 70 years in prison, on Jan. 11.
Nukida told authorities that she did not intend to kill anyone when she injected them in February, 1991. She said she wanted to be sent to prison because she believed doctors there could cure her recurring headaches.
The patients at Casa Colina Peninsula Rehabilitation Center that Nukida injected lost consciousness and were treated for dangerously low levels of blood sugar.
Nukida also admitted to injecting insulin into medications contained in several plastic bags in a storeroom at the rehab center, Larsen said.
The former registered nurse fled to Mexico in January, 1993, while awaiting trial, and was considered a fugitive until her arrest Sept. 29 in Puerta Vallarta.
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