A former nurse at a Portsmouth hospital has been charged with accidentally killing a 76-year-old patient after wrongly injecting her with morphine.
William Wade of Chesapeake is charged with involuntary manslaughter in the Feb. 29 incident. He remains free on $10,000 bond. State health officials say Wade also faces the possible loss of his license.
A doctor who treated the woman says that she would have lived if Wade quickly reported the mistake instead of trying to cover it up.
Wade was fired in 1999 from a Norfolk hospital for unsafe clinical practices, according to state medical records.
(Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
