The Good Nurse: A True Story of Medicine, Madness, and Murder

Following his attempt to die by suicide, Charlie finishes an outpatient program and is then questioned about Helen Dean’s death. He passes a lie detector test and finds a new job at Hunterdon Hospital, receiving references from his previous hospitals. He begins with a remarkably good record, starts dating a fellow nurse named Kathy, and is rewarded for his behavior. However, within a month of working at Hunterdon, he starts to make significant medical errors, receives reprimands, and over-lotions patients. He’s caught mis-administering drugs on multiple occasions and not marking these mistakes on patient charts. His supervisor issues him an ultimatum, which enrages him, and Charlie quits on the spot. Back at his apartment, he writes a scathing letter of resignation and is given permission to serve as a freelance nurse. He doesn’t show up to his assigned shifts and, when he receives a final termination letter from Hunterdon, sends another intense letter of protest that doesn’t receive a response.

After resigning from Hunterdon in October 1996, Charlie secures work at Morristown Memorial Hospital. He abuses patients and, although patients threaten to call authorities, Charlie is merely lectured. He continues mis-administering medicine and is fired within a year after failing to give heparin to a patient scheduled for surgery, which results in the patient’s death.