2nd Lawsuit in suspicious Hospital Deaths

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Associated Press Texas Wire News

Second civil lawsuit filed in suspicious hospital patient deaths

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NOCONA, Texas (AP) - The family of a man whose death is part of a

state and federal investigation is suing a former nurse and the hospital where

he died.

The 11 children of Boyd Bruce Burnett, who died Dec. 24, claim that

Nocona General Hospital was negligent in hiring, supervising and retaining a

nurse who allegedly administered a drug that killed him.

The drug Mivacron, also called mivacurium chloride, is used to

temporarily stop the natural breathing process in order to insert a breathing

tube.

Several vials of the drug were reported missing from the 38-bed

hospital in late January. The hospital noticed a twofold increase in patient

deaths in December and January.

Nocona police, Texas Rangers and the FBI are investigating. No one

has been arrested.

Montague County District Attorney Tim Cole said the bodies of 12

former hospital patients would be exhumed likely by the end of this month for

autopsies. Burnett is among those 12.

In the civil lawsuit filed Wednesday, Burnett's children seek

$300,000 in damages, as well as compensation for mental anguish, costs of burial

and reburial and attorney fees.

Another Nocona resident, Donnelly Reid, filed a civil suit in March

against the hospital and same nurse. He claims that the nurse gave him Mivacron,

which was not ordered by his doctor and injured him.

The hospital, which is not under investigation, said the nurse named

in the lawsuits no longer works there.

AP-WS-05-11-01 1917EDT