A 72-year-old woman in Germany She was arrested after she allegedly turned off a colleague’s ventilator in the hospital twice because she was disturbed by the sound it made.
The woman was arrested on suspicion of attempted premeditated murder after the incident in the southwestern city of Mannheim on Tuesday evening.
Police and prosecutors said the suspect turned off the woman’s ventilator and then, despite staff telling her the machine was vital for the patient, turned it off again later in the evening.
subscriber press release Published by the Mannheim Public Prosecutor’s Office Mannheim police claim that the woman turned off her respirator before 8pm after she was “disturbed by the noise coming from the oxygen machine”.
“Although hospital staff informed the suspect that supplying oxygen was a vital procedure, she is said to have turned the machine off again at around 9pm,” the statement read.
The authorities said the 79-year-old patient had to be resuscitated, and while her life was not in danger, she still needed intensive care.
The suspect appeared before a judge on Wednesday and was taken to jail. Investigations are ongoing.
The Associated Press contributed to this report