The law firm of Robert Peirce & Associates, P.C. filed a Wrongful Death lawsuit against Sunnyview Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Butler, Pennsylvania on behalf of the family of Nicholas Cymbal. The lawsuit alleged that, on May 1, 2023, Mr. Cymbol died after Heather Pressdee, a Unit Manager at Sunnyview, injected him with an excessive and lethal dose of insulin. Mr. Cymbol was just 43 years old.
The Complaint alleged that in January 2023, just five months before Mr. Cymbol’s death, Sunnyview hired Heather Pressdee as Unit Manager of the facility’s Cardinal Unit, where Mr. Cymbol resided. Before her being hired by Sunnyview, Ms. Pressdee had been terminated and/or forced to resign from ten local medical facilities over less than four years as a result of her abusive behavior towards residents and staff. These facilities are:
| Facility | Start Date | End Date |
|---|---|---|
| Encompass Health Rehabilitation Hospital of Harmarville | 10/2018 | 04/2019 |
| Allegheny Valley Hospital | 04/2019 | 09/2019 |
| Platinum Ridge Center for Rehabilitation & Healing | 09/2019 | 01/2020 |
| Orchards of Saxonburg | 02/2020 | 04/2020 |
| UPMC Passavant – McCandless | 04/2020 | 10/2020 |
| Concordia at Rebecca Residence | 10/2020 | 04/2021 |
| Belair Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center | 04/2021 | 02/2022 |
| Woodhaven Care Center | 03/2022 | 05/2022 |
| Quality Life Services – Chicora | 05/2022 | 11/2022 |
| Premier Armstrong Rehabilitation | 11/2022 | 12/2022 |
The Complaint alleged that the Sunnyview administration failed to investigate Ms. Pressdee following a string of suspicious resident deaths in its facility in the months before Mr. Cymbol’s death. Specifically, the Complaint alleged:
- An 80-year-old female resident died on January 21, 2023, after Ms. Pressdee injected her with an excessive dose of insulin. Two days before this resident’s death, she was allegedly found bloodied with broken teeth and two black eyes at the facility by her son.
- A 104-year-old female resident died on March 21, 2023, after Ms. Pressdee injected her with an excessive dose of insulin, inducing critical hypoglycemia and causing the resident to foam at the mouth shortly before her death.
- A 78-year-old female resident died on March 24, 2023, after Ms. Pressdee injected her with two excessive doses of insulin. According to the Complaint, Ms. Pressdee administered the first dose of insulin after the resident’s daughter had left the room and gone outside to her car. The resident’s daughter returned to her mother’s room and found her unresponsive. She summoned the assistance of Ms. Pressdee. After the daughter left the room a second time while Ms. Pressdee tended to her mother, Ms. Pressdee administered the second dose of insulin, which caused the resident’s death.
- A 90-year-old male resident died on March 25, 2023, after Ms. Pressdee administered two flushes of air into the resident’s IV port, causing an air embolism. This was after Pressdee had already injected him the previous day with an excessive dose of insulin, which induced hypoglycemia and caused the resident to foam at the mouth.
- An 82-year-old female resident died on April 17, 2023, after Ms. Pressdee administered a syringe of air into the resident’s PICC line, causing an air embolism. This was after Ms. Pressdee had already injected the resident with an excessive dose of insulin that did not immediately cause the resident’s death.
- Before the deaths of these residents, Ms. Pressdee had made comments to staff that certain residents at the facility needed to die and that certain residents did not deserve to live.
- In the days before Mr. Cymbol’s death, Ms. Pressdee made comments that Mr. Cymbol “was going to be the next one to die.”
- After being confronted by members of its nursing staff with concerns regarding Heather Pressdee’s erratic and troubling behavior, Sunnyview Administration allowed her to continue as Unit Manager.
“We were hired by the families of Heather Pressdee’s victims to get answers as to how she was permitted to continue working in these facilities, despite her erratic, disturbing, and abusive behavior,” said Rob Peirce, Managing Partner of Robert Peirce & Associates. “The more our office has investigated, the more questions we have as to why these facilities allowed these tragedies to occur.”