LUFKIN, Texas—A former DaVita Lufkin nurse turned herself in to local authorities and was booked on one count of capital murder, as well as five counts of aggravated assault for allegedly injecting 10 dialysis patients with bleach, which caused five deaths.
On Wednesday, Kimberly Saenz, 35, turned herself into the Angelina County jail after a grand jury indicted her late Tuesday with capital murder and aggravated assault. She is being held without bond.
Saenz, a former licensed vocational nurse at a Lufkin, Texas, DaVita clinic, could face the death penalty if convicted.
Texas state and federal health officials were notified in late April 2008 about a cluster of four patient deaths at the Lufkin clinic, which was closed as a result. DaVita said that it had been looking into complications at the unit earlier that month. An investigation found that 19 patients died at the clinic in a five-month period that ended in April.
A report by the Texas Department of State Health Services said that DaVita didn’t properly monitor care to patients, and as a result didn’t immediately detect the uptick in patient deaths. In addition, the report found that the Lufkin clinic did not properly document patient deaths or keep complete and accurate medical records.
A break in explaining the cluster of deaths came when two patients in the Lufkin clinic told senior staff that they saw Saenz injecting bleach into bloodlines. The affected patients were sent to the hospital and Saenz was sent home and fired. As a result, the clinic’s 130 patients were bused to other dialysis clinics for care.
In May 2008, Saenz was charged on two counts of aggravated assault for allegedly injecting patients with bleach. Those two patients survived, but police and company officials had reason to believe she was responsible for the deaths of at least four other patients at the time.
Texas suspended Saenz’s nursing license on May 14, 2008, due to the bleach-injecting allegations, as well as a complaint that she had stolen painkillers from a hospital she worked at in August 2005. She voluntarily surrendered her nursing license in January.
Tubing, blood samples and other medical equipment of the affected patients were preserved to be used as evidence against Saenz. Testing on the equipment showed bleach had been used in the syringes and dialysis lines. She now faces a capital murder charge for her alleged actions, which include the death of five patients.
DaVita's Lufkin clinic reopened July 2, 2008, after completing a corrective plan of action and hiring four “monitoring” staff.
