1997/12/18
An Egyptian nurse has been charged with killing one patient and trying to kill a further 29 to avenge her unrequited love for the doctor who was treating them, prosecutors said on Wednesday.
They said Aida Nourredin Mohammed Abu Zeid, 25, also faced charges of stealing medicine and drugs and forging hospital documents to cover up the missing items. Prosecutors said Abu Zeid had confessed to the crimes during interrogation. Security sources said the maximum penalty if she were found guilty was death by hanging.

Prosecutors said she worked at the intensive care unit of the # Alexandria University Hospital for seven years before carrying out the alleged crimes. They said she injected her victims with substances that caused respiratory failure. Investigations showed that all the cases of respiratory failure took place during her shift, they said.
Abu Zeid was in love with the doctor who was treating all the # patients concerned, but he did not return her affections, they added.

Abu Zeid told local newspapers at the time of her arrest earlier this # year that the doctors at the hospital were using her as a scapegoat # for their mistakes.