Ellen O'Hara, age 92, was awaiting hip surgery at Good Samaritan Hospital, in the Chicago suburb of Downer's Grove, when she died on October 19, 1979. Autopsy surgeons blamed her death on hypoglycemia - abnormally low blood sugar - induced by unknown causes. O'Hara's body was routinely cremated, but hospital administrators were startled when patient Vivian Brown died with identical symptoms on February 8, 1980. Neither patient had a prior history of hypoglycemia, and the police chief of Downer's Grove called Brown's death "highly suspicious." Physicians agreed, concluding in May that her condition was caused by an "externally administered dose of insulin." In retrospect, they thought it likely that Ellen O'Hara had been the victim of a similar lethal injection . In early June, administrators suspended 24-year-old nurse Linda Kurle from her post on the night shift at Good Samaritan. Both patients had shown their first symptoms of hypoglycemia during Kurle's shift, and while she professed no memory of Ellen O'Hara, Kurle recalled finding Brown in "serious straits" in the predawn hours of February 8. Her treatment of the patient, Kurle insisted, had been strictly by-the-book. No charges have been filed at this writing, and the case of the mysterious insulin injections at Good Samaritan remains unsolved.