Court document describes suspicious patient deaths at Chillicothe hospital in 2002

Hedrick Medical Center in Chillicothe, Missouri, hired Jennifer Hall as a respiratory therapist in December 2001.

Over the next six months, the hospital recorded 18 code blue emergencies, when in most years it usually had just one. Half of the patients died, and hospital staffers noticed that Hall was the common denominator.

Not only was she in close proximity when patients coded, but she seemed to relish the excitement.

“She liked code blues,” longtime nurse Aleta Boyd testified in a deposition.

When families sued the hospital, court documents described the series of deaths and why they seemed suspicious.

The Missouri Supreme Court ultimately threw out the cases on a technicality, ruling that the cases were filed past the statute of limitations for bringing suit.