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Deadly Housekeeper



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Nov 30, 2005 05:37 PM

Deadly Housekeeper


I found this article. Reckon it's true. Probably happened even in the USA!
I've seen a few housekeepers who could've easily killed a few!

South African Health - Pelonomi Hospital
Date: 26 July 1996 10:08

"For several months, our nurses have been baffled to find a dead
patient in the same bed every Friday morning" a spokeswoman for
the Pelonomi Hospital (Free State, South Africa) told reporters.
"There was no apparent cause for any of the deaths, and extensive
checks on the air conditioning system, and a search for possible
bacterial infection, failed to reveal any clues." "However,
further inquiries have now revealed the cause of these deaths.
It seems that every Friday morning a cleaner would enter the
ward, remove the plug that powered the patient's life support
system, plug her floor polisher into the vacant socket, then go
about her business. When she had finished her chores, she would
plug the life support machine back in and leave, unaware that the
patient was now dead. She could not, after all, hear the screams
and eventual death rattle over the whirring of her polisher.

"We are sorry, and have sent a strong letter to the cleaner in
question. Further, the Free State Health and Welfare Department
is arranging for an electrician to fit an extra socket, so there
should be no repetition of this incident. The enquiry is now
closed."

from (Cape Times, 6/13/96)
BTW, the headline of the newspaper story was, "Cleaner Polishes
Off Patients."


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8 Comments
No. 1
Old Nov 30, 2005, 06:23 PM

Default Re: [B]Deadly Housekeeper[/B]
http://www.snopes.com/horrors/freakish/cleaner.asp
here it is.
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No. 2
from Gumshooz
Old Nov 30, 2005, 07:14 PM

Default Re: Deadly Housekeeper
WOW! How could the person just unplug something like that and even realize why its there. If the cleaner had just took extra time to see where it was coming from then that hopefully wouldnt have happened to anyone of the patients. People just amaze me...
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No. 3
Old Nov 30, 2005, 07:25 PM

Default Re: [B]Deadly Housekeeper[/B]
Snopes.com says the story is fake.
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No. 4
from mtymom
Old Dec 01, 2005, 03:55 PM

Default Re: Deadly Housekeeper
I was going to say that the story is fake. I saw it on a TV show about Urban legends. By the way, most vents have a backup battery and alert someone when it is shut off.
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No. 5
Old Dec 01, 2005, 04:36 PM

Default Re: Deadly Housekeeper
[QUOTE] [/QUOTE]strange things do happen in hospital. a patient came in for a chole,after talking with her i notice she had been reading abook about unexplained deaths in hosp. her sister died 2 years earlier after surgery {unexplained} healthy medical hx. after coming back to work i found out this pt.also died ,her daughter said "just like aunt so and so"
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No. 6
from Jessy_RN
Old Dec 05, 2005, 03:38 PM

Default Re: [B]Deadly Housekeeper[/B]
Originally Posted by Hellllllo Nurse
Snopes.com says the story is fake.
I hope it is.
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No. 7
Old Dec 21, 2005, 06:46 PM

Default Re: Deadly Housekeeper
Originally Posted by mtymom
I was going to say that the story is fake. I saw it on a TV show about Urban legends. By the way, most vents have a backup battery and alert someone when it is shut off.
Not only that, have you heard the screaching alarm that goes off when they loose power.

Adam, RN
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No. 8
from calliou
Old Dec 21, 2005, 07:19 PM

Default Re: Deadly Housekeeper
My goodness...imagine if it was a real story (if it isn't!)!!!
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