Civil lawsuits from families of former nurse Heather Pressdee’s victims continue to work through courts
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Eight months after Heather Pressdee pleaded guilty to murdering at least three patients in nursing centers where she worked, wrongful death lawsuits against many of those centers continue to wind their way through the courts.
Pressdee, 42, is serving three consecutive life terms without parole, plus an additional 380 to 760 years, after pleading guilty to three counts of first-degree murder and 19 counts of attempted murder.
She admitted to administering often-lethal doses of insulin to patients in five nursing homes in Allegheny, Armstrong, Butler and Westmoreland counties between December 2020 and May 1, 2023.
At least nine lawsuits have been filed, including those against Guardian Healthcare and its facility in Lower Burrell, Belair Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center; Sunnyview Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in Butler; Quality Life Services in Chicora; and Armstrong Rehabilitation and Nursing Facility in Kittanning and its parent company, Armstrong SNF Operator LLC.
Pressdee worked at 11 nursing facilities from 2018 to 2022 despite a pattern of being fired for patient mistreatment and a 2022 referral by a hospital physician to the state Department of Health, raising concerns that Pressdee was harming patients.
The state Attorney General’s Office, which prosecuted Pressdee on the criminal charges, said it is not involved in the civil lawsuits and does not have any comment on those cases.
The lawsuits include counts of negligence and vicarious liability, with claims that, despite Pressdee being fired or forced to resign because of her abusive behavior, she continued to be hired.
Robert Peirce III, a Pittsburgh attorney representing five families whose loved ones were victims, said four of his cases are in litigation.
A suit against Quality Life was resolved last fall. The settlement terms were not made public. Peirce said he could not comment on the case because of confidentiality issues. Quality Life officials did not return calls for comment.
“Four cases are still pending, with multiple parties trying to work toward an amicable resolution,” he said. “Along the way, both sides are exchanging documents as we move forward.”
Other suits were filed through Hal K. Waldman & Associates. Waldman did not respond to calls for comment.
In court paperwork, Pressdee said she was attempting to ease her patients’ pain. In court, before being sentenced, she said: “I just wanted to say I’m very sorry for what I’ve done. I know I’ve impacted a lot of lives, including my parents’, and I’m deeply, deeply sorry for what I’ve done.”
Seventeen of her patients died. Pressdee’s plea bargain, in which she admitted to three of the deaths, spared her from a possible death sentence.
While she sits in jail, her victims’ families continue their legal battles for, so far, unspecified damages.
In the latest suit, filed in April, Waldman sued Armstrong Rehabilitation and Nursing Facility on behalf of a 90-year-old woman who died one month after Pressdee was hired there.
The suit claims staff members at Armstrong Rehabilitation were negligent by failing to prevent Pressdee from administering unnecessary insulin to the patient, who was in the facility to be treated for dementia, and failing to report or act on reports regarding suspected abuse, among other claims.
Similar claims fill the other lawsuits filed against the nursing facilities.
One of the suits against Sunnyview Rehabilitation claims a 43-year-old man died after Pressdee injected him with a lethal dose of insulin. It also claims Pressdee routinely abused the alleged victim by calling him derogatory names and withholding food and water.
Three families hired Peirce’s firm, alleging family members were killed by Pressdee’s negligence at Belair.
Peirce previously said his firm was “hired by the families of Heather Pressdee’s victims to get answers as to how she was permitted to continue working in these facilities, despite her erratic, disturbing and abusive behavior.”