Brazilian doctor accused of killing 20 terminally ill patients to free up hospital beds 'could be responsible for 300 more deaths'

A Brazilian doctor accused of ending the lives of her hospital patients to free up hospital beds could be responsible for more than 300 deaths.
Virginia Soares de Souza was arrested last month after a number of terminally ill patients were found to have died prematurely while under her watch in the Hospital Evangelico in Curitiba, south Brazil.
De Souza is accused of administering fatal doses of drugs or reducing the amount of oxygen given to patients in the hospital's intensive care ward.

Virginia Soares de Souza is accused of 20 premature deaths at the Hospital Evangelica but authorities believe she may be responsible for up to 300 more (file photo)

The doctor was initially charged with involvement in the deaths of seven patients.
But an inquiry by Brazil's Health Ministry has already increased that number to 20 with around 300 other suspicious deaths at the hospital still under investigation, it was revealed today.
Dr Mario Lobato, leading the investigation, told Brazil's Fantastico TV programme his team had analysed patient deaths overseen by De Souza over the last seven years.
He said De Souza 'played God' by deciding which patients should die in order to free up beds in the ward.
He said: 'There are 20 cases which have already been closed, and we have nearly 300 cases still open which we are looking at.

'In each case, the testimony of people who worked inside the hospital confirmed what we have found on the patient records.'
If confirmed, de Souza would surpass Britain's Harold Shipman as the world's most deadly doctor.
Shipman, who hanged himself in prison aged 57, murdered at least 215 patients aged between 47 and 93 over 25 years.
One of the deaths de Souza is accused of is that of Ivo Spiitzer, who was on a life support system and died in January this year.

If the Brazilian Health Ministry's fears are confirmed, De Souza would surpass British GP Harold Shipman as the world's deadliest doctor

De Souza is accused of reducing the oxygen he was receiving from 45 per cent to the minimum level of 21 per cent, a concentration too low for anyone to survive.
Records show Mr Spitzer died an hour after being given the drug Pavulon, a muscle relaxant.
In the right dosage Pavulon can be used to allow life support machine to control the patient's respiration, but can also be fatal. It is also one of the drugs administered during most lethal injections.
According to Dr Lobato, the reduction of oxygen and the administering of Pavulon was the cause of most of the other suspicious deaths which occured during De Souza's watch.
He said: 'All of them have the same modus operando, the same relationship between the drug and death, and the same time between both.'
He said some of the patients were conscious and talking moments before they died.
He said: 'One was awake, being nebulised but not even connected to a respirator.
'This patient had asked his family to bring his glasses so he could do some reading while he was in the intensive care ward.
'Another patient had just asked a nurse for a cup of water.
'This nurse testified that one of the things she will never forget is that she didn't manage to give him the cup of water because by the time she returned he had already died.'
De Souza's lawyer, Elias Mattar Assad, said the doctor will protest her innocence.
She said: 'Soon we will be able to prove that what happened in that ward can be justified in medical writings.'
Another three doctors and a nurse have also been arrested accused of collaborating with De Souza. All those accused have been freed on bail while the inquiry continues.

DAILYMAIL