Missouri respiratory therapist Jennifer Hall sentenced in deaths of 2 patients

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) – A former respiratory therapist who pleaded guilty in the deaths of two patients at a Missouri hospital two decades ago has received her prison sentence.

Jennifer Hall was sentenced on Friday to 18 years in the Missouri Department of Corrections. She will have the possibility of parole.

She initially was charged with two counts of first-degree murder but in April pleaded guilty to reduced first-degree involuntary manslaughter counts in the deaths of 75-year-old Fern Franco and 37-year-old David Wesley Harper. She also pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree assault.

Franco and Harper were among nine patients who died at Hedrick Medical Center in Chillicothe over several months in 2002 in what charging documents describe as “medically suspicious” events.

The Livingston County Prosecutor released the following statement:

From December 2001, when Hall started working at the hospital until she was placed on administrative leave the following May, there also were 18 cardiac arrests or “Code Blue” events, up from an average of one a year before then.

The case was revived after an analysis of Franco’s tissue samples found morphine and a powerful muscle relaxant used in anesthesia in her system. Neither drug was prescribed or ordered for her by her doctors, investigators said.

Some staff at the hospital believed Hall was responsible because of her proximity to the stricken patients, her access to deadly pharmaceuticals, and because she notified staff of every patient’s cardiac emergency, according to court documents.

Hall had previously denied any involvement in the deaths.

Families of patients who died during Hall’s employment later sued the hospital.

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