www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3086189/Nurse-Victorina-Chua-guilty-murdering-poisoning-patients-Stepping-Hill-hospital.htmlHow did Filipino serial killer get a job in the NHS? Fears 'devil' nurse who murdered two patients and poisoned 20 more faked his qualifications to work in a UK hospital
Chua guilty of two murders and poisoning 20 other patients on NHS wards
Nurse injected insulin into saline to kill Tracey Arden and Derek Weaver
He either administered poison himself or left them for colleagues to use
Police believe Filipino father-of-two may have faked his qualifications
After 11 days of deliberations jury convicted him of 34 of 37 charges
Hospital boss says there was not 'anything we could have done about it'
By Martin Robinson for MailOnline and Stephen Wright and James Tozer for Daily Mail
Published: 11:47 GMT, 18 May 2015 | Updated: 07:48 GMT, 19 May 2015
A 'devil' nurse who murdered two patients and poisoned 20 others may have been working in an NHS hospital for years without the proper qualifications, it was revealed today.
Serial killer Victorino Chua, 49, secretly injected deadly levels of insulin into saline bags and ampoules while working on two wards at Stepping Hill Hospital in Stockport.
Chua, who called himself an 'angel turned evil', has been convicted of murdering Tracey Arden, 44, and Derek Weaver, 83, but cleared of killing Arnold Lancaster, 71.
Police fear he was not a fully qualified nurse after they discovered three different versions of his medical school record in the Philippines and believe he got someone else to sit his final exam.
Despite questions over their vetting and calls for a public inquiry the hospital and the Nursing and Midwifery Council say he passed the requirements when he arrived to work in Britain in 2002.
The Filipino father-of-two, described as a 'narcissistic psychotic' who enjoyed watching his victims suffer, tampered with medicine and gave it to patients himself or put them back so his colleagues would unwittingly use them.
After a number of poisonings police were called in so he started to tamper with prescription charts instead - doubling or trebling dosages to unsafe levels or removing drugs they needed to take.
After 11 days of deliberations he was today found guilty on 34 of 37 charges at Manchester Crown Court, which involved poisoning 22 people in total, and faces life in prison.
Murder victim Tracey Arden, who had multiple sclerosis, was admitted for a 'mild' chest infection and would have expected to 'sail through this storm', the court heard.
But she was pronounced dead eight hours after admission after being treated with a saline ampoule contaminated with insulin.
Mr Weaver was admitted with a chest infection and after being given a saline drip, he 'appeared to be in agony, (with his) eyes rolling back in his head'.
Survivors poisoned on wards A1 and A3 described how they were admitted to Stepping Hill with relatively minor illnesses only to be given 'astronomically high' amounts of insulin and 'left on their death beds' minutes after being treated by Chua.
Each victim left with dangerously low blood sugar levels and many of the survivors have suffered debilitating illness and psychological trauma as result of his reign of terror.
In all Chua was convicted of two murders, 22 counts of attempted grievous bodily harm, one count of grievous bodily harm, seven attempts of administering poison and one count of administering poison.
He was cleared of one count of murder, one count of manslaughter and one count of attempting to administer poison.
Chua blinked as the verdicts were delivered but gave no other reaction.
Following the verdicts, police questioned whether the killer from the Philippines, who brought his family to the UK in 2002, was a fully qualified nurse.
A year after he arrived in the UK, officials at the Nursing and Midwifery Council accepted photocopies of his supposed qualifications, education and training as proof of his credentials – paving the way for him to work in the NHS.
But no checks were carried out with his previous hospital employer in the Philippines, whom he had left under a cloud.
Victims: Patients Tracey Arden, 44, and Derek Weaver, 83, were murdered by the nurse after they were given contaminated medication
Det Supt Simon Barraclough said: 'The mindset of people who work in the NHS is that they're there to save patients or make their death more comfortable.
'The last thing in the world they think is that there's somebody in their midst who's trying to poison and kill patients. It doesn't feature on their radar.
'He is a serial killer – he's killed three people in this particular instance of offending. He could well have killed more if it were not for the intervention of other medical staff.'
And he cast doubt on whether the regulatory authorities in the Philippines which vet nurses had carried out thorough checks into Chua's nursing college transcript of records, which feature suspicious amendments.
Amid claims Chua may have used forged qualifications to qualify as a nurse, Mr Barraclough said: 'I have no confidence in the qualifications he has provided via the Professional Regulation Commission (which verifies the qualifications of nurses).'
GMP chief constable Sir Peter Fahy revealed that police had wanted to shut Stepping Hill down completely after the alarm was raised about the poisonings in the hope of preventing further killings.
'At one point we were pretty close to it,' he said.
'When you start looking at how the NHS operates, you realise that would be a huge challenge.
'If we had to close the hospital, or even part of the hospital, and move very frail patients to another site, that in itself could have led to deaths.'
He said it had been a balancing act and that in the end police had agreed to the alternative of bumping up security at hospital entrances and on wards.
Stepping Hill Hospital faces a multi-million pound bill to compensate the victims of killer nurse Victorino Chua.
It is understood most of his 21 victims or their families have instructed lawyers to sue the hospital's trust.
Grant Misell, 41, can expect the largest pay-out as he suffered a serious brain injury after he was poisoned by Chua.
The hospital defended its security today and said the storage of saline and its paperwork was the same nationwide.
Ann Barnes, chief executive of Stockport NHS Foundation Trust, said: 'Remember, some of the victims of this are actually our staff and some of our staff have gone through a really difficult time and were put under a degree of scrutiny as a result of us not knowing in the early days, not knowing what was happening.
'It's been a huge strain on the organisation and on the staff and they have been exemplar.'
Mrs Barnes also apologised to the families of victims.
She added: 'All I can say is sorry: sorry for them being put through this unbelievable experience where their loved ones or themselves - many patients are still with us - have gone through what we now know are heinous crimes.
'The sorry is not that I think there is anything we could have done about it, but it is sorrow for their position.'
Jackie Smith, chief executive of the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), said officials have looked back at Chua's application and he passed the requirements at the time.
Trial: Chua killed two patients at Stepping Hill Hospital in Stockport, pictured, by injecting medical products with insulin
Ms Smith said: 'When he was put on our registration, he provided what was required at the time and we have not seen a document that indicates he has committed fraud, but we do understand police have got concerns about qualifications.
Foreign nurses must now complete an online test, and if they pass, candidates can apply for a visa to work in the UK.
CHARGE SHEET: WHAT 'ANGEL OF DEATH' NURSE WAS CONVICTED OF
Two counts of murder
One count of grievous bodily harm with intent
22 counts of attempted grievous bodily harm
Seven counts of attempting to cause a poison to be administered
One count of administering a poison
They are interviewed and original documents, work history and qualifications are examined.
If these checks are satisfied, there is a further skills test before they are put on the register.
The NMC says Chua's case is coincidental to the introduction of the more 'robust' registration process for nurses coming from overseas.
It says there are 23,000 Filipino nurses on the register, and it analysed the registration process of all who registered between 2002 and 2006, around 11,500 nurses in all.
Records were checked to make sure the documents provided were what was required at the time.
Only a 'handful' were questionable and none was deregistered as a result, an approach that was 'appropriate and what the public would expect'.
Document: Police found a 13-page note after arresting Chua where he wrote about 'a devil in me' and being 'an evil person' making a 'bitter nurse confession'
Ms Smith added: 'It's a bit like describing someone determined to commit fraud. No system is 100% foolproof. What we have to do is ensure we have got as robust system as we can have, but it won't stop people from committing the most serious crime.'
POLICE FEAR THERE COULD BE DOZENS MORE VICTIMS AND EVEN WANTED TO SHUT DOWN HOSPITAL
Police suspect Victorino Chua may have poisoned many more patients - but detectives say it would be impossible to prove.
As part of the murder probe, detectives commissioned a statistician to examine the death rates on the wards where Chua worked as a night nurse.
Although the expert found 'nothing unusual' over the timeframe connected to Chua's poisoning spree, detectives concede there could be other poisoning attacks which have not come to light.
Officers say there was a high expectation that critically-ill patients transferred to those wards would die because of the seriousness of their condition.
And because insulin breaks down by half every five minutes, it becomes virtually undetectable within a patient's body in about 20 minutes.
This makes proving someone has been poisoned extremely difficult, let alone establishing the culprit.
Detective Superintendent Simon Barraclough, added: 'Chua clearly had no regard for his patients and did not give a second thought as to who would be injured or the devastation this would cause them and their families.
'He is a serial killer – he's killed three people in this particular instance of offending. He could well have killed more if it were not for the intervention of other medical staff.'
Meanwhile, GMP chief constable Sir Peter Fahy revealed that police had wanted to shut Stepping Hill down completely after the alarm was raised about the poisonings.
'At one point we were pretty close to it,' he said.
'When you start looking at how the NHS operates, you realise that would be a huge challenge.
'If we had to close the hospital, or even part of the hospital, and move very frail patients to another site, that in itself could have led to deaths.'
He said it had been a balancing act and that in the end police had agreed to the alternative of bumping up security at hospital entrances and on wards.
As codeine-addict Chua prepared to be sentenced tomorrow there were calls for a public inquiry into the scandal.
It can also be revealed that:
Chua ‘graduated from one of the worst nursing colleges in the Philippines’ which shut down after concerns about its poor standards and finances
Victims of the Stepping Hill poisonings are in line for millions of pounds’ worth of compensation
Detectives fear Chua may have killed before both here and in the Philippines, possibly using different methods.
During the case, jurors were shown copies of a letter in which Chua wrote 'there's a devil in me'.
The handwritten document was found in his kitchen after his arrest in 2012.
The letter read as a 'bitter nurse confession' and he had been prescribed sleeping tablets and anti-depressants.
In the letter, he said he was writing it in case something happened to him and so people can 'work out how an angel turn to an evil person'.
The killer ended the 13-page document by writing: 'Still inside of me I can feel the anger that any time it will explode just still hanging on can still control it but if I will be pushed they gonna be sorry.'
He added: 'The bitter nurse confession. Got lots to tell but I just take it to my grave.'
The Crown said the Filipino father-of-two had decided to take out his personal frustrations on patients 'for reasons truly known only to himself'.
After police were called in, Chua was said to have 'changed tack' by sabotaging prescription charts, doubling and trebling dosages - some with potentially lethal consequences - leading to his arrest in January 2012.
At Stepping Hill in June and July of 2011 a growing feeling of unease and 'something not right' overtook medics after one patient after another suddenly began falling inexplicably ill on Chua's wards.
Overnight on the nightshift of July 10/11, five patients had unexpected hypoglycaemic attacks, a naturally rare event, which suddenly became, 'alarmingly common'.
A similar pattern followed of 'roller coaster' blood sugar levels for the poisoned patients, who soon rallied after being given glucose sugar infusions, only before they relapsed again from the insulin, unknown to medics, still in their drips.
Many patients went 'full circle' and recovered, but three died, two of them as a direct result of the poisoning the jury ruled with their murder verdicts, and a fourth was left with permanent brain damage.
Victim Kathleen Murray, 57, a civil servant who has suffered years of health problems as a result of being given a drip contaminated with insulin by Chua, described herself as 'living victim' of the poisoner.
'How could they let someone like that work in a hospital, as a nurse?' she demanded yesterday. 'He was meant to be caring for people, yet he had all that anger inside him.'
The mother-of-three, who lived near Chua in Heaton Norris, was admitted to ward A1 at Stepping Hill in July 2011 after contracting an ear infection on a family holiday to Greece, but even six months later she could barely get out of bed and had to cut her hours at work.
'I was supposed to be on that ward to help me recover – instead it destroyed my health,' she said.
Gillian Millar, who works for a housing association, was a patient on A1 six months later and was proffered a handful of unknown tablets by Chua in a suspected poisoning bid, but refused to take them.
The 53-year-old, from Marple, remains angry that security on the ward was not tighter when bosses at Stepping Hill knew the insulin poisoner remained at large.
'You know you have an alleged murderer on your ward, somebody doing something,' she said. 'I'm furious about it.
'When I was on the ward that night, there were only three staff. There were a lot of elderly people and a lot them had mental problems and dementia.
'It was very, very lax. They knew it was happening on that ward and they didn't do enough to stop it.'
Zubia Aslam, who survived her saline drip being contaminated at Stepping Hill, said: 'Today's verdict provides some closure to me and the other families involved in this process. At least someone has been brought to justice and it gives a little peace of mind but it still feels as though there is a scar left after all of this, a scar which will fade with time but which will never go away.
'Life has not been the same and never will be. This has turned my life upside down, but also that of my family and I still have questions about how this was allowed to happen in the first place. What measures have been taken to date and will be taken going forward to ensure that this never happens again?'
Chua will be sentenced tomorrow.
Diversion: After police realised that saline was being contaminated Chua changed tactics and decided to alter prescription charts like this one (pictured) and increase drugs administered to dangerous level
Did Filipino fake his qualifications to get a job working as a nurse in NHS?
'Devil' nurse Victorino Chua may have used fake qualifications to secure an NHS job - allowing him to murder and poison at will.
Jurors at his trial were not told that Filipino Chua had a track-record of dishonesty dating back to 1985 when he trained in Manila.
When detectives flew out to the Philippines and checked his original pass certificate from the Philippines Board of Nursing, it had the photo of what appears to be another person attached - suggesting it may not even have been Chua who sat the final exam to qualify as a nurse.
They also found three different versions of his medical school record in the Philippines.
Bogus nurse? This is a photo purporting to be Chua that was attached to his final nursing exam but detectives believe it may not have been him and someone may have taken it for him
Other documents relating to his qualifications contained different styles and layouts but purportedly from the same original awarding body.
HOW KILLER NURSE CHUA LEFT TRAIL OF DEATH AND DESTRUCTION
Here are the key dates in the investigation into the poisoning of patients at Stepping Hill Hospital in Stockport.
July 7 2011 - Mother-of-two Tracey Arden, 44, dies at Stepping Hill Hospital.
July 10 - Five male patients suffer sudden unexpected hypoglycaemic episodes overnight.
July 11 - Retired photographer Arnold Lancaster, 71, right, dies at the hospital.
July 12 - Hospital chiefs contact police after staff find contaminated vials of saline.
July 15 - Security is heightened at the hospital.
July 20 - Nurse Rebecca Leighton, 27, is arrested on suspicion of murder.
July 21 - Alfred Weaver, known as Derek, 83, dies at Stepping Hill.
July 22 - Leighton is charged with three counts of causing criminal damage intending to endanger life and three counts of criminal damage being reckless as to whether life would be endangered.
July 23 - Leighton appears at Manchester Magistrates' Court. She is remanded in custody.
August 5 - Leighton is refused bail by Mr Justice Henriques at Manchester Crown Court 'for her own protection'.
September 2 - Leighton is freed from Styal Prison in Cheshire as the Crown Prosecution Service says the case against her has been discontinued
January 3 2012 - It emerges that seven patients on ward A3 at Stepping Hill have had their prescriptions or medical notes altered, including increasing dosages and changing drugs.
January 5 2012 - Police arrest Victorino Chua on suspicion of tampering with medical records. He is later questioned on suspicion of murdering three patients - Tracey Arden, Arnold Lancaster and Derek Weaver - and multiple poisoning of other patients before he is released on bail.
March 28, 2014 - While still on bail, he is re-arrested at his home in Stockport and then charged with the three murders and various other offences, relating to the poisoning of dozens of patients with insulin.
March 29 - Chua appears at Manchester Magistrates' Court and is remanded in custody.
January 26 2015 - Father-of-two Chua, 49, goes on trial at Manchester Crown Court.
May 18 - Chua is found guilty of two murders and poisoning dozens of others
Chua got a personal recommendation, 'no questions asked' to begin in the 'nursing game', in 1985 studying and working at the Galang Medical Centre - a grand title for such a shabby building in Manila.
The centre, now closed, was rated one of the worst in the Philippines, a country where qualifications can be had sometimes not by study but by money changing hands in 'diploma mills'.
Chua was not merely an incompetent or under-qualified nurse - he was an evil one who 'exploded' when challenged by colleagues, patients or relatives and hit back by randomly murdering and poisoning those in his care, leaving others to pick up the pieces.
Chua agreed to leave his first nursing job in Manila amid claims of receipts being stolen and patients charged for drugs they did not receive.
Later in the UK he was accused of forging a reference purportedly from the family of a person he had cared for while at a nursing home in Stockport.
A serial complainer, with rows and disciplinary hearings a regular feature of his career, he later tried to sue a care home he had worked at and failed.
He was also taking a complaint about his GP to the medical ombudsman at the time of his arrest for murder.
His motives for killing patients were 'unfathomable' the jury heard but detectives speculate his reasons may be hated those he worked with, or that he simply feels nursing is beneath him.
In a ltter confessed he was 'evil' and going 'straight to hell' as he wrote of the demons inside him.
Angry and frustrated, Chua was a walking medicine cabinet of anti-depressants, painkillers and sleeping pills when he wrote his, 'bitter nurse confession' a deeply personal, auto-biographical letter, seized by police from his home.
It revealed a man deeply discontent with his lot in life and wracked with guilt and regret, obsessed with money and status, yet still harbouring a sense of injustice and superiority.
His deeply personal 13-page letter gives some insight into his complicated background in his native Philippines.
Victorino Domingo Chua enjoyed a comfortable childhood by any standards, the third eldest of six children to his mother Vuanaita Abedes Domingo and father, Angel Noblo Chua, the general manager of a textile mill in Manila.
The family wanted for nothing but the good life did not last. His father lost his job and split from his mother.
'I felt sorry for my dad one time he's a big time man but now nobody,' Chua wrote.
The children were split up to live with other family members, some rich, and they 'got everything' - but not Chua.
He seldom saw his other siblings afterwards and 'hated' his parents for leaving them 'like animals' living with relatives.
At school he wanted to be in the 'elite group' wearing his denim Levis, 'to show off my friend that I got branded clothes'.
In 1985 studying and working at the Galang Medical Centrr in Manila, which was eventually shut down because of poor standards
Chua began to hustle, befriending rich students to be their 'errand boy' buying them drugs and cigarettes to earn money.
In October 1991 Chua started work in the general surgical ward and emergency room of the Metropolitan Hospital in Manila.
Here he became a 'Robin Hood guy' he claimed, pulling strings with the doctors to get free treatment and 'charity' operations for the poor but continued hustling for cash, buying and sellling goods 'under the table'.
At work he caught the eye of future wife, Maryanne, and 'did my best to win her heart because I got many rivals with her, doctor, engineers and much more good looking guy than me'.
In 1996 they married, four years after first meeting, and the wedding was soon followed by the birth of his first daughter Enna Marie, a sickly child whose medical bills hit the family finances.
After Chua lost his job at the hospital he was told about nursing jobs in the UK, raised the 5,500 US dollars in fees and left for a new life in England on February 22, 2002, aged 36, on a two-year work permit.
By October 2003 his wife and daughter had joined him, but a month later Chua hurt his back lifting a patient and was off work for nine months.
Chua tried to sue over his back injury but failed claiming, 'because the management manipulated all the document'
His second daughter, Summer Marie, was born in September 2005 and three years later Chua, now a naturalised UK citizen started doing bank shifts before securing a full time job at Stepping Hill, on June 1 2009.
He preferred night shifts and did not get on well with some colleagues, describing some of them as 'nasty bitch'.
In early 2010 he went to his surgery complaining he could not sleep, felt paranoid and was prescribed anti-depressants and repeated counselling sessions.
Chua confided in his letter: 'They thought I'm a nice person but there a devil in me. I know if I go, I go straight to hell no question ask.'
Still fighting the medical authorities after a GP's letter containing very personal health details was sent in error to a neighbour's house - and the contents made public in the neighbourhood, Chua said he was writing his letter so his family can continue the claim, or 'can tell somebody to look at it and work out how and angel turn to an evil person. The bitter nurse confession. Got lots to tell but I just take it to my grave. My family will make history here in England.'
At work he could not get through his shifts without taking painkillers, 'over the limit' writing prophetically: 'Still inside of me I can feel the anger that any time it will explode ... if I will be pushed they gonna be sorry.'
How nurse confessed he was going 'straight to hell' in letter where he described himself as 'evil'
The paranoid nurse who killed and poisoned people he should have been caring for had warned there was 'a devil' in him a year before his crimes began.
Victorino Chua penned what he called a 'bitter nurse confession' in which he spelled out 'how an angel can turn to an evil person', his trial heard.
In 13 pages of rambling, broken handwritten English, the Filipino nurse said he might 'explode' at any time, adding: 'If I will be pushed, they gonna be sorry.'
His lawyers said the document – found in his home following his arrest – was not a criminal confession but an 'outlet for his anger and frustration' written at the suggestion of a counsellor 12 months before the first poisoning.
Verdicts: Nurse Victorino Chua has been found guilty by a jury at Manchester Crown Court of murdering and poisoning hospital patients at Stepping Hill Hospital
But questioned by detectives after his arrest for changing patients' prescriptions on the wards, the 49-year-old said: 'Sometimes I snap'.
Dependant on painkillers, sleeping tablets and antidepressants, Chua also wrote that he sometimes felt like killing himself, but feared he would 'go straight to hell no questions asked'.
As the prosecution in his trial at Manchester Crown Court drew to a close yesterday after nearly three months, the jury were read the entire document which was found in a kitchen drawer of his home in Stockport after he was arrested in January 2012.
Jurors were told how over more than a dozen pages of sometimes hard-to-follow broken English written in scrawling capital letters, he recounts the story of his life, beginning: 'My name is Victorino Domingo Chua.'
In the document, the father of two said he was writing 'in case something happen to me (so) my family can continue my case or can tell somebody to look at it and work out how and (sic) angel turn to an evil person'.
He added: 'The bitter nurse confession. Got lots to tell but I just take it to my grave. My family will make history here in England.'
The jury has been told the 'case' refers to a complaint he had lodged against his local GP surgery after it mistakenly posted his confidential medical records to a different address.
In a later addition to the document dated December 2010, Chua described how he could control the number of painkillers he took for back and knee pain when he was at home – but at work he 'can't help it to take more than the limit'.
He added: 'I'm just telling them I'm fine and alright just to shut there (sic) mouth.
'Still inside of me I can feel the anger that any time it will explode ... just still hanging on ... can still control it but if I will be pushed they gonna be sorry.'
Earlier he wrote how he was avoiding going drinking with friends, adding: 'They thought I'm a nice person but there (is) a devil in me.'
It is understood most of his 21 victims or their families have instructed lawyers to sue the hospital's trust, arguing that the hospital failed to do enough to prevent the later incidents once they knew a poisoner was at work.
Manchester-based Slater Gordon solicitors are representing Grant Misell, 41, from Cheadle Hulme, who suffered a serious brain injury after he was poisoned by Chua.
His lawyer Stephen Jones, who is also representing several of those affected, said Mr Chua is still suffering the consequences of the ordeal and may never fully recover.
He said: 'While Mr Misell is considered to be one of the survivors of what happened at Stepping Hill, the incident resulted in serious brain damage from which he may never recover.
'He suffers from memory loss, struggles to concentrate or make decisions and still sometimes slurs when speaking. This has affected his confidence and it has been recommended that he has treatment for depression and post-traumatic stress.'
He said Mr Misell had worked hard for many years as a corporate treasurer before the incident.
'However, he no longer possesses the mental ability to work in this capacity and his quality of life is greatly diminished as he is now financially, extremely vulnerable,' he added.
'Not only has this affected Mr Misell but it has also been a deeply distressing ordeal for his family who at one point were told to prepare for the worst and thought they might lose him for good.
'They have been and continue to be beside him every step of the way in his lengthy rehabilitation and I hope the verdict today will give them all some closure and enable them to focus on the future.'
Mr Jones added that other patients and their families could be entitled to 'significant' damages which could stretch into hundreds of thousands of pounds.
He said: 'Every hospital has a duty of care towards its patients yet instead, these people were failed in the place where they should have felt most safe.
'It is our view that if proper systems and safeguards were in place then these tragedies would never have happened.
'Three of the cases were fatal and others now have to live with long-term health problems as a result.
'It is impossible to put a figure on it at this stage until each of the individual cases have been properly assessed, but in the case of those people who have suffered life-changing injuries the potential payouts will be significant and could stretch into hundreds of thousands of pounds.'
Another of the firm's clients is the family of retired doctor's receptionist Daphne Harlow, 90, who suffered an unexpected hypoglycemic attack even though she had only been admitted following a fall.
She was in hospital for just over a month following the incident on July 12, 2011. She took around 18 months to recover and still has health problems even now almost four years on.
Her daughter Sue Haines, 67, said her mum 'became a different person' after the attack.
She said: 'We were expecting her to be sitting up in bed with a sore knee and, instead, she was totally confused and not with us at all.
'A lot of the nursing staff believed she was exhibiting signs of dementia, so I asked the doctor to arrange a brain scan as she had banged her head in the fall, but the results came back clear.'
She added: 'Before her admission to Stepping Hill, my mum was always a very active and sociable person. When she came back it seemed like she had almost lost her ability to think about what she was doing.
'She wasn't as mobile, didn't enjoy the same things she used to and was a very different person to the one who had sprained her knee.'
Another firm Irwin Mitchell is also representing a number of clients, including Zubia Aslam, 27, who suffered a hypoglycemic attack after the hospital and police had suspected a poisoner was at work.
REVEALED: THE VICTIMS WHO WERE POISONED BY KILLER NURSE CHUA
Josephine Walsh, 69, from Stockport, was admitted to hospital June 23, 2011 on ward A3. Her condition was improving, but she was treated with a contaminated flush or drip and fell ill
Josephine Walsh, 69, from Stockport, was admitted to hospital June 23, 2011 on ward A3. Her condition was improving, but she was treated with a contaminated flush or drip and fell ill
Here is the list of the 21 insulin victims and how they were harmed on wards A1 and A3 at Stepping Hill Hospital in June and July, 2011.
1) Josephine Walsh, 69, from Stockport, was admitted to hospital June 23, 2011 on ward A3. Her condition was improving, but she was treated with a contaminated flush or drip. As nurses prepared to move her to another ward, she was found slumped unconscious in a chair.
2) Jack Beeley, 72, from Stockport, was admitted on June, 27 with a chest infection. Confused, shouting and 'very vocal', Chua was asked to administer a saline bag. Shortly after, Mr Beeley had 'suddenly gone quiet', breathing heavily, and was clammy and unresponsive. Given a glucose infusion, he was back sat up in bed within minutes.
3) Linda McDonagh, 59, an administrator from Stockport, was admitted on June 28 with a chest infection. Given saline drip, she suddenly became unwell and lost consciousness. Her blood sugar level was 'very, very low' which was 'medically very hard to explain'. She was given dextrose and recovered.
4) Joseph 'Eric' McDonald, 66, a retired painter and decorator from Stockport. He was a day patient in for intravenous anti-biotics in a saline drip, but 'began to feel terrible,' and thought he passed out. Tests showed extremely low blood sugar. He was given dextrose - he recovered rapidly and went home the same day.
Joseph 'Eric' McDonald, 66, a retired painter and decorator from Stockport, was a day patient in for intravenous antibiotics in a saline drip, but 'began to feel terrible,' and passed out
Joseph 'Eric' McDonald, 66, a retired painter and decorator from Stockport, was a day patient in for intravenous antibiotics in a saline drip, but 'began to feel terrible,' and passed out
5) Antony Smith, 47, a musician from Stockport, who was admitted on June 27 for alcohol detox. When put on a drip, he deteriorated and became 'unresponsive and clammy' - he was found to have severely low blood sugar levels.
6) Joyce Atherton, 81, from Stockport, was admitted on July 3 with chest infection and given saline drip by a nurse. 'I felt fine until she put the bag up,' Ms Atherton said. Her blood sugar levels were found to be so low, medics thought it must be a mistake. When treated with glucose, she recovered and refused further medication.
7) Beryl Hope, 70, from Stockport, was in hospital with oesophageal cancer. At 7am on July 6, Chua recorded his observations on her as 'alert and responsive'. The day shift taking over 17 minutes later found her, 'literally on her death bed' with 'profoundly low' blood sugar levels. Given glucose, within a short time, her notes record her, 'sitting up and waving!!!'
8) Doreen Brace, 87, from Buxton, Derbyshire, was admitted on July 7 with suspected heart failure. A doctor's signature was forged on her notes, so she was given not one but two saline bags. She was treated and recovered with dextrose infusion.
9) Tracey Arden, 44, worked for a tax watchdog. Diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and cared for in a residential home, She was admitted on July 6 for 'mild' chest infection. She was pronounced dead eight hours after admission. Ms Arden had a blocked cannula probably flushed through with a saline ampoule contaminated with insulin. Her blood sugar level was later found to be 'catastrophically low'.
Her condition deteriorated, lungs filling with fluid and Ms Arden died having 'drowned' in an episode caused 'unquestionably' by insulin poisoning.
Beryl Hope, 70, from Stockport, was in hospital with oesophageal cancer. At 7am on July 6, Chua recorded his observations on her as 'alert and responsive'. The day shift taking over 17 minutes later found her, 'literally on her death bed' with 'profoundly low' blood sugar levels.
Beryl Hope, 70, from Stockport, was in hospital with oesophageal cancer. At 7am on July 6, Chua recorded his observations on her as 'alert and responsive'. The day shift taking over 17 minutes later found her, 'literally on her death bed' with 'profoundly low' blood sugar levels.
10) Kathleen Murray, 53, a civil servant from Stockport, returned from holiday in Greece suffering dizziness and suspected ear infection. Given a saline bag, she woke up unwell and sweating heavily Staff begin to suspect 'something odd' was happening to patient's blood sugar levels.
11) Lillian Baker, 85, from Marple, Cheshire, admitted on July 7 after suffering a bleed. Given saline drip, she began to feel, 'hot and flushed' and frightened. 'I thought I was going to die and felt that ill I wanted to', she said. Given glucose, she recovered.
12) Beatrice Humphreys, 84, from Stockport, was admitted on July 8 with cough and vomiting. Put on saline bag, she said: 'It just came on me while I was on the drip.' Later discharged.
13) Mary Cartwright, 88, from Hope Valley, Derbyshire. Admitted July 9 with a temperature, her blood sugar level was normal until a sudden hypoglycaemic episode after being put on saline drip.
14) Lillian Armstrong, 83, from Stockport, was admitted on July 9 with shortness of breath and chest pain. Put on saline bag, she lapsed into unconsciousness. Family at bedside thought she was dying and nurses thought she 'would not make it through the night'. She was given dextrose and almost immediately responded.
15) Philip Jones, 67, from High Peak, Derbyshire, admitted with cellulitis, but was generally fit and well. Put on a drip and 'within minutes' said he felt, 'really hot, struggling to breathe. Felt as if I was going to die', in circumstances 'very suggestive'of insulin poisoning. Given glucose, he recovered.
16) Alfred 'Derek' Weaver, 83, from Stockport. Admitted July 10 with chest infection, he went from being sat up in bed to 'profoundly unwell'. Given a saline drip, he 'appeared to be in agony, eyes rolling back in his head'. Given 'fast-acting' dextrose, his blood sugar levels rose but overall his condition deteriorated and he died 10 days later.
17) Arnold Lancaster, 81 from Stockport. He was admitted to ward A1 on July 10, with an infection, suffering terminal, inoperable cancer of the oesophagus. Given saline infusion, his condition, 'suddenly deteriorated unaccountably' from a hypoglycemic episode. Experts said he would have died within weeks from cancer, but insulin poisoning 'hastened' his death.
Linda McDonagh, 59, an administrator from Stockport, was admitted on June 28 with a chest infection. Given saline drip, she suddenly became unwell and lost consciousness
Linda McDonagh, 59, an administrator from Stockport, was admitted on June 28 with a chest infection. Given saline drip, she suddenly became unwell and lost consciousness
18) Grant Misell, 41, a financial markets manager. He was admitted on July 11, having taken an overdose. No cause for concern on arrival, he was left in sole care of Chua who, during the night shift, recorded patient observations as 'sleeping and comfortable in bed'. Chua administered a saline drip at 3.15am. At 7.30am Mr Misell was found, twitching, deeply unconscious and at one point stopped breathing. His blood sugar level is 'life-threateningly low.' He was transferred to intensive care and survived, but suffered brain damage through lack of oxygen.
19) William Dickson, 82, was admitted with shortness of breath on July 10. He was put on a saline drip and his wife Jean said: 'All of a sudden Bill was gone, straight in front of my eyes.' In a mini-seizure, she ran to nurses for help and her husband was given a huge infusion of dextrose.
20) Daphne Harlow, 86, from Buxton, Derbyshire. She was admitted on July 12 after a fall, but was described as 'sprightly' and 'hale and hearty' on admission. Put on a saline drip, she became clammy, unresponsive and began fitting. She made a 'remarkable recovery' and by the end of the nurses' shift was recorded as, 'sat on bed talking in animated fashion about the weather'.
21) Zubia Aslam, 24, a bank clerk from Glasgow, was admitted on July 14 diagnosed with gastro-entiritis. Put on a saline drip, she fell ill, 'sweating buckets, feeling dizzy, hallucinating, vision blurred,' she said. Taken off the drip and given dextrose, she recovered
Last victim of Chua was admitted to hospital AFTER hunt for him began: Mother-of-one was given more insulin because bosses did not realise how much medication he had tampered with
By James Tozer for The Daily Mail
The last victim of Chua’s poisoning spree was admitted after the hunt for the saboteur began, but was still given insulin because hospital bosses failed to realise how much medication he had tampered with.
Zubia Aslam, now 27 and by far the youngest of Chua’s victims, was admitted to ward A3 with a severe stomach bug on July 13, 2011 - the day after police were called in.
However while all stocks of ampoules – small, sealed containers – of saline had immediately been removed from the wards where Chua worked in response to the spate of hypoglaecemic attacks, saline bags remained in circulation.
Still suffering: Zubia Aslam, now 27 and by far the youngest of Chua’s victims, was admitted to ward A3 with a severe stomach bug on July 13, 2011 - the day after police were called in to investigate deaths on the ward
Yesterday she told of the trauma of being poisoned with sufficient insulin to have left her permanently brain damaged if nurses hadn’t been on the look-out for the signs of low blood sugar after the spate of ‘hypos’.
Miss Aslam recalled how she woke up ‘sweating, really, really wet, my whole body was wet – I actually thought I’d wet myself’.
‘I didn’t think I was going to make it,’ she added.
‘I got up, couldn’t actually get my body up, couldn’t speak, my vision was really blurry,’ Miss Aslam told BBC 5 Live.
‘I just remember managing to move my arm and I think I knocked off something at the side, it was a jug of water.
‘After that I don’t know what happened, but when I came around my mouth was quite sticky with something quite sugary in it.
‘I had lots of people around me, I didn’t know what was going on, next minute I know my family are there.
‘I was pretty scared because I didn’t know what’s happened but at that point I still didn’t know it was the drip that was making me unwell.
The nurse who connected Miss Aslam to a saline drip to rehydrate her checked the bag for signs of tampering but failed to spot the tiny V-shaped cut where Chua had injected saline, his trial heard.
It was so small it could only be detected in a laboratory.
After she was taken ill, the treatment room where medication was kept was belatedly sealed off and every product taken away for testing, with all intravenous fluids across the hospital replaced with new stock.
Tests on the saline bag given to Miss Aslam found it contained two syringes full of insulin – if the bag had run its course, she would have suffered irreversible brain damage.
Instead, thanks to the quick action of nursing staff, she was discharged four days later.
However Miss Aslam, a former bank clerk from Glasgow and now a mother-of-one who continues to suffer health problems as a result of being poisoned, is taking legal action against the trust which runs Stepping Hill.
‘I’d say I’ve lost faith in the NHS – it’s a nightmare,’ she added.
‘When you’re in hospital you think your safe. I didn’t think to ask questions – you do as your told.’
In a statement through her solicitors yesterday she added: ‘Today’s verdict provides some closure to me and the other families involved in this process.
‘At least someone has been brought to justice and it gives a little peace of mind but it still feels as though there is a scar left after all of this, a scar which will fade with time but which will never go away.
‘Life has not been the same and never will be. This has turned my life upside down, but also that of my family and I still have questions about how this was allowed to happen in the first place.
‘What measures have been taken to date and will be taken going forward to ensure that this never happens again?’
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