State suspends license of nurse accused of killing care home patients

The nursing license of a Harrison woman charged with purposely administering fatal doses of insulin to two patients has been suspended indefinitely.

Defendant Heather Pressdee, a registered nurse since 2018, agreed to the suspension sought by Pennsylvania’s Bureau of Professional and Occupational Affairs.

Prosecuting attorneys for the bureau signed off last month on the consent agreement, which was approved July 20 by the State Board of Nursing and filed Wednesday — two months after Pressdee was arrested — with the Pennsylvania Department of State.

Signing on Pressdee’s behalf was her father, Michael Pressdee, who holds her power of attorney.

Pressdee is charged with two counts of homicide and other offenses including attempted homicide for using insulin to injure a third patient, who survived.

In light of the criminal charges, the state said Pressdee’s continued practice of nursing “makes her an immediate and clear danger to the public health and safety.”

In agreeing to the suspension, Pressdee, 40, did not admit guilt.

Pressdee’s lawyer, Phil DiLucente, declined to comment on the suspension as well as on the unexplained postponement Tuesday of his client’s formal arraignment.

When she was charged May 25, Pressdee had been working at Sunnyview Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in Butler, according to investigators. But the alleged crimes occurred the year prior, while she was the assistant director of nursing at Quality Life Services-Chicora in Donegal Township, Butler County, from May to November 2022.

In between those jobs, investigators said, Pressdee worked for a two-month stint at Premier Armstrong Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in Kittanning.

Prosecutors with the state Attorney General’s Office have not named any of the alleged victims at the Chicora facility, but instead referred to them by their initials.

Investigators accused Pressdee of killing a 55-year-old man identified as J.B.,who died Dec. 4, 2022, and his suite mate, an 83-year-old man identified as J.C., who died Dec. 25. They were sent to Butler Memorial Hospital with hypoglycemia — low blood sugar — within 30 minutes of each other.

The alleged victim who survived was identified as E.A., a 73-year-old man who became ill Aug. 31.

Investigators said Pressdee admitted to giving insulin to all three men. Investigators believe the dosage caused their blood-sugar levels to plummet dangerously, provoking medical emergencies.

In discussing the two men who died, Pressdee told investigators that she “felt bad for their quality of life and she had hoped that they would just slip into a coma and pass away,” according to a criminal complaint.

Pressdee claimed that E.A. asked her to kill him, the complaint said.

Although investigators described a “pattern” of discipline against Pressdee for abusing patients and staff, leading to her being fired or resigning from each of the 11 care facilities where she worked from October 2018 until May, online state records do not show any disciplinary action against her nursing license other than the consent agreement.

Pressdee is being held without bond in the Butler County jail.