A nurse accused of killing two patients and endangering the lives of a further 16 was "gung ho" and liked to brag about his ability, a court heard yesterday.
Benjamin Geen, 25, of Banbury, Oxfordshire, is on trial at Oxford crown court for murder and grievous bodily harm, after allegedly administering large doses of dangerous drugs to patients, just so he could feel the adrenaline rush of trying to revive them.
Mr Geen denies murdering David Onley, 77, and Anthony Bateman, 67, and denies 18 counts of grievous bodily harm.
Michael Austin-Smith, QC, prosecuting, told the jury Mr Geen was an attention seeker who used to boast about how busy his shifts were. He revelled in the drama he allegedly caused by injecting patients with drugs which forced them to go into respiratory arrest.
"He was fond of self-aggrandisement," Mr Austin-Smith told the jury. "From the outset of his career, it was necessary for hospital authorities to reprimand him for presenting himself as a qualified nurse when he had not passed his exams." There were several occasions when Mr Geen, who worked in the accident and emergency ward at Horton General hospital, Banbury, treated patients where he was not qualified to do so, the court heard. In one instance, he fitted a plaster cast to a patient's broken wrist, and on another he disobeyed a doctor's instructions in relation to an insertion in a patient's wind pipe. "He was thought ... to be gung ho," said Mr Austin-Smith.
The offences are alleged to have occurred between December 3 2003 and February 5 2004. Mr Geen's alleged victims were usually admitted to the ward with non-life threatening problems. All experienced a rapid decline in their condition after being admitted, and suffered respiratory arrests which puzzled doctors.
A hospital investigation found that Mr Geen had been on duty every time one of these incidents had occurred, and he was subsequently suspended.
Mr Austin-Smith said Mr Geen did not intend to kill the two patients, but risking patients' lives was a "price he was willing to pay to satisfy his perverse needs".
The trial continues today.
