Authorities say a retired Florida nurse suffocated her husband in his hospital bed as he was recovering from elective back surgery.
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Jan Sochalski, 61, is charged with second-degree murder in the May killing of Henry Sochalski, 64, in a Daytona Beach, Florida, hospital room, police there said.
At the time, Jan Sochalski’s husband had been placed in a unit specializing in medical care for people with serious illness.
The Sochalski’s moved to Palm Coast, Fla. from Mercer County shortly after Henry Sochalski retired. Police were called to the hospital that day, but a nurse calmed the woman down and she wasn’t arrested.
Investigators said Jan Sochalski was so frustrated about her husband’s treatment at the hospital that, on April 28, she threatened to go home, retrieve her husband’s firearm and “shoot the people on the seventh floor”.
Another nurse told Daytona Beach investigators that on one occasion, Sochalksi had asked for medication that would “decrease his her husband’s respiratory status”.
Arrest documents also show Ms. Sochalski’s husband was hooked up to a pain medication machine when she pressed the button 264 times in an eight hour period, according to the article, which cites information from CBS affiliate WKMG. The medication machine does have a safety net built in and won’t give more medication than prescribed, according to the station.
Then in May, a nurse witnessed the suspect lying over her husband with one hand on his chest and one hand covering his mouth and nose.
A nurse told police before Henry Sochalski died, his nose was “fine”, but when he was found dead, his nose was purple, police said.
Henry Sochalski died approximately 30 minutes later.
Nurses called police, and an investigation began.
Following Henry Sochalski’s death, a nurse told investigators Jan Sochalski seemed very rushed and said she needed her husband’s paperwork and a copy of his death certificate.
Complicating matters further are revelations that the day before her husband died, the wife signed a ‘do not resuscitate’ order while prohibiting nurses from entering the room.
His cause of death was later ruled as a suffocation of his nose, mouth and tracheotomy.
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Jan Sochalski is being held without bail at the Volusia County Jail.
