Affidavits Outline Evidence in Hospital Deaths

Affidavits filed by the police task force investigating deaths at Glendale Adventist Medical Center outline the evidence that prompted them and a physician consultant--Dr. Dale Isaeff of Loma Linda University School of Medicine--to pick 20 cases in which to exhume bodies of patients who died while respiratory therapist Efren Saldivar was on duty. They include the six in which a lab later found the paralyzing drug Pavulon in the patients’ bodies, resulting in the murder charges against Saldivar.

* Salbi Asatryan, 75. Died Dec. 30, 1996

Asatryan entered the hospital three days earlier in “near respiratory failure,” according to one of the affidavits. The attention given to her death stems from more than the medical facts. The document confirms that her death was the one that prompted other respiratory therapists to banter about Saldivar’s “magic syringe”--later setting off an internal hospital investigation. This death was hard to tie to Saldivar, according to the documents; hospital records did not list him as working at the time. But a co-worker, Bob Baker, recalled that Saldivar had been called in to help out, and detectives found “handwritten time sheets” showing that he, in fact, put in a four-hour shift. “Baker recalled being ‘ticked off’ because Ms. Asatryan was his patient and he was extremely angry that Saldivar would approach one of his patients,” says the affidavit. “His last recollection of Ms. Asatryan was that she was showing improvement.”

* Eleanora Schlegel, 77. Died Jan. 2, 1997

Admitted Dec. 30, Schlegel had a long list of ailments, including pneumonia, obstructive pulmonary disease and multiple sclerosis. Yet an affidavit suggests that she was in better shape than other patients Saldivar is accused of killing. First admitted to St. Luke’s Hospital with pneumonia, she was transferred to Glendale Adventist at her own request, “alert and coherent.” She had been able to feed herself the evening of Jan. 1 and the last nurse to treat her--little more than a hour before she was found dead--noted “nothing abnormal.” The attending doctor expected her to “fully recover.” Though there is no record that Saldivar treated her, he was the supervising respiratory therapist on the two-person shift that night, the affidavit says.

* Jose Alfaro, 82. Died Jan. 4, 1997

Alfaro had been admitted Jan. 2 from a Glendale convalescent home, with a new onset of pneumonia, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and chronic artery disease. He died while Saldivar was the “floor supervisor,” according to a police affidavit. The attending doctor did not see anything unusual about Alfaro’s death; he even advised a detective to “let him rest in peace.” But a nurse thought “the death seemed strange.” The medical consultant noted that while Alfaro was very ill, he “was seen alive about 10 minutes before he died . . . the nurse believed the patient died suddenly, shortly after being seen.”

* Luina Schidlowski, 87. Died Jan. 22, 1997

Admitted two days earlier from the emergency room, she had hypertension, hyperthyroidism and chronic pulmonary disease, a police affidavit says. She had been a frequent patient in the hospital. The unique feature of this case: Saldivar is placed at the scene. “Saldivar was in the process of providing treatment to Ms. Schidlowski just minutes before her death.” Still, the doctor on duty was not suspicious. She “got tired and stopped breathing,” he said. But a nurse, Yolanda Booker, recalled walking into the room with Saldivar so he could administer an arterial blood gas test to determine the oxygen content. “The patient was having difficulty breathing, awake but not verbal.” Booker said she left the room to call the doctor. About two to three minutes later, Saldivar left the room and called for a “Code Blue” seeking assistance. Schidlowski’s breathing had stopped and her heart was racing. Then her heart stopped, the document says.

* Balbino Castro, 87. Died Aug. 15, 1997

Brought into the emergency room in respiratory failure nine days earlier, he had a DNR notation on his chart--”Do Not Resuscitate”--one of the criteria mentioned by Saldivar to police for picking victims. The last nurse to care for him did not find the death unexpected; he was unresponsive almost 10 hours before he was pronounced dead. But police cited Saldivar’s recollection, in his confession, of using Pavulon to kill two patients in August 1997. One complication in this case is that Castro required insertion of a breathing tube when he arrived at the hospital--a procedure that required a dose of Pavulon. The medical experts would have to conclude that the amount found in his body could not be explained by that dose.

* Myrtle Brower, 84. Died Aug. 28, 1997

Admitted to the hospital three days earlier suffering from pneumonia and respiratory failure, she also had suffered from mental retardation since birth. According to an affidavit, she had received a suctioning treatment from Saldivar two days before her death. The night she died, the affidavit says, he was on duty, “free to move throughout the entire hospital.” Detectives thought she matched the description of patients Saldivar targeted, in part because her “quality of life could easily be construed as poor.” In addition, the medical consultant thought her death “possibly suspicious” because her blood oxygen level was not alarming.