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AP
Tuesday, March 4, 1997
DENVER – An 86-year-old hospital patient died after being injected with a solution of prescription drugs that she had refused to take orally.
The nurse who administered the drugs was suspended immediately after Jane Kind’s death Sunday, said officials at Columbia Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Medical Center in Denver. The nurse, who was not identified, resigned yesterday.
Kind reportedly suffered from depression and had been hospitalized since Feb. 6 for treatment of an undisclosed ailment.
After Kind refused to take the drugs orally, the nurse crushed a tablet of the antidepressant Paxil and combined it with potassium chloride and a multivitamin in sterile water, hospital officials said. She injected the solution into the woman’s central intravenous line, delivering the drugs directly to the heart.
The coroner’s office said more tests were necessary to determine the cause of death.