In a medical malpractice case of epic proportions, Dr. Virginia Soares de Souza from Brazil has been accused of killing patients in her intensive care unit in order to free up beds for new patients to come in. The medical doctor from South America has been accused of killing terminally ill patients before they naturally passed away by injecting them with drugs or tampering with their respirators. Three other doctors, three nurses, and a physiotherapist at Evangelical Hospital have also been accused of co-conspiring with this doctor in her scheme. All of the accused parties were arrested in February and charged with aggravated first degree murder of seven individuals.

So far, the doctor has been formally accused of killing seven patients at the hospital but she may responsible for as many as 300 deaths. In almost all cases the patients were terminally ill, and Dr. De Souza facilitated the murders in order to open up beds for new patients to come to the hospital. The medical team allegedly issued some strong muscle relaxing drugs to some patients and then reduced their oxygen supply. As a result, many of the patients suffocated to death in the hospital with aware nurses and doctors turning a blind eye to their suffering.

Authorities may have never determined Dr. Souza's criminal plan had she not admitted that she was freeing up beds during a telephone conversation. The conversation was wire-tapped by authorities, and when they hear her reveal the reason for the frequent deaths at the hospital, they were floored. In one wiretapped phone conversation, Dr. De Souza told the caller that she wanted to clear up the intensive care unit and didn't like being "the go-between on the springboard to the next life."

Despite the evidence stacked up against Dr. De Souza, her criminal defense lawyer insists that the authorities have misunderstood the goal of an intensive care. The lawyer declares that Dr. De Souza will come out of the trial innocent. Dr. De Souza may be guilty of more than seven cases, and authorities are currently going through the medical records of 1,700 individuals who have died at the hospital in the past seven years since the doctor has been in charge of the intensive care unit. A chief investigator told the New York Daily News that the authorities have already established more than 20 cases which they will bring against the defendant and have about 300 left that they want to comb through and investigate.

If it is discovered that Dr. De Souza is guilty of killing up to 300 patients through asphyxia, then this case may qualify as one of the world's most dramatic serial killings. Ti would reveal the famous case of Harold Shipman, the doctor who killed at least 215 patients at his hospital. Most murder cases involved in the De Souza look similar. Patients were given a large dosage of the muscle relaxant called Pancuronium and then had their respirators turned down so that they would slowly lose air and suffocate.

Some patients were conscious the moments before they died. Reports show that there were times that De Souza may have been absent from the hospital but instructed her coworkers to carry out the murders on her behalf. While horrific murder cases like this are not common in medical malpractice, the De Souza case proves that doctors cannot always be trusted. If you have been harmed by a doctor and want to seek compensation because of negligence or purposeful disregard, then you need to discuss your case with a local medical malpractice attorney. You need to keep the hospital or clinic responsible by seeking compensation today!