Vickie Dawn- A Nurse Who Killed Her Patients Out OF Anger

The early life of Jackson, who was born Vickie Dawn Carson on February 13, 1966, in Montague County, Texas, is not well known. She has been a certified vocational nurse since 1989 and has worked in a number of hospitals and nursing homes in North Texas before finding work at Nocona General Hospital in late 2000.

Despite its modest size, the hospital was regarded as one of the top 100 in the country and is noted for treating mostly elderly people with minor illnesses.

All of the patients who passed away between December 2000 and February 2001 at Nocona General Hospital were between the ages of 62 and 100 and had previously been in good health.

Despite the fact that this was initially thought to have been caused by the patients' elderly status and compromised immune systems, suspicions began to circulate within the hospital that they may have started to die on purpose.

It was found that 20 vials of the drug, usually used to allow the insertion of a breathing tube, were missing from the hospital.

They also found a syringe with traces of the drug was found in Jackson's garbage.

Norris ordered that the cabinets containing Mivacron be locked and only accessible by the supervisors after meeting with the pharmacist and determining that all of the deaths occurred during a single shift. He also directed that the police be informed without delay.

The deaths of more than 20 patients who may have been poisoned with Mivacron were then the subject of a collaborative investigation by the local police, the Texas Rangers, and the FBI.

Newspapers reported that a civil lawsuit had been filed on behalf of one polio patient, 61-year-old Donnelly Reid, who claimed that one of the nurses, Vickie Dawn Jackson, who had since been fired, had injected a drug into his IV tube. This occurred as exhumations from cemeteries in North Texas and Oklahoma were taking place. Reid was saved from the tragedy by a different nurse, but two months later he would pass away from pneumonia.

A week later, another patient's children brought another complaint against Jackson, claiming that Jackson had given him an unapproved medication injection that caused him to pass away on December 24, 2000.

Trial and Arrest

Jackson from the hospital, and on July 16, 2002, she was arrested on suspicion of four capital murders. 

Jackson was fired two days after a patient, Donnelly Reid, alleged that the nurse pushed a needle into his saline drip and administered an unprescribed drug that caused him to lose consciousness. At the time, the hospital refused to give a specific reason for Jackson's dismissal.

She got job at a nearby grocery shop after being sacked, but was arrested on July 16, 2002, she was arrested on suspicion of four capital murders. 

In January 2004, Jackson was charged with an additional six murders.

The bodies of 10 people who died at the hospital in December 2000 and January 2001 were exhumed from cemeteries in Texas and Oklahoma last summer. Almost all of those exhumed were in their 80s when they died.

According to the district attorney, mivacurium chloride, a muscle relaxant that can be fatal in high doses, was injected into each victim before they all passed away. According to him, the medication is used to paralyze the diaphragm to make it simpler to install a breathing tube.

At Jackson's second trial, an FBI Special Agent testified against her, saying that after speaking with her for several hours, he came to the conclusion that she had killed the patients out of rage for their "very demanding" behavior and had attempted to hurt a number of others.

Jackson's defense attorney said the former nurse decided to enter the plea because her adult daughter was scheduled to testify against her. "She has never admitted guilt and she was never convicted by a jury," Martin said. "And her daughter never had to testify against her. Those things meant something to her."

Jackson ultimately pleaded no contest to the 10 capital murder charges, and accepted the life sentence that was given to her.