Epinephrine

Today, in 2001, Kristen Gilbert was found guilty of murder by poison.  Kristen was a nurse taking care of patients at the VA hospital in Northampton Massachusetts.  She injected her patients with high doses of epinephrine.

Epinephrine is a drug familiar to everyone.  It is a naturally endogenous neurotransmitter that your body produces everyday.  It is an  alpha 1, beta 1 and beta 2 agonist.  In normal levels it stimulates your heart, lungs and blood vessels.  For someone in the midst of heart attack, or an asthma attack, that's good.  We want to stimulate our heart to work better and beat faster and our blood pressure to go up.  During an asthma attack we want our lungs to open up.  But what happens when you give too much?   The heart is driven so fast it can not efficiently pump blood.  The normal electrical transmission of the heart is disturbed and arrhythmias result.  Or the heart stops much like a heart attack.   

Kristen Gilbert had a high rate of heart attacks on her watch.  At first everyone marveled at how compassionate and competent she was in the midst of a crisis.  But then other  nurses became suspicious.  Some think Kristen poisoned her patients to show off.  After all, not all of them died.  Others thought she did it because her boyfriend was part of the emergency response team.  What better way to foster a relationship. 

Kristen Gilbert was convicted of four counts of murder and two of attempted murder on this day in 2001.