Some colleagues who worked with Harrison nurse Heather Pressdee referred to her as the “Angel of Death,” according to one former co-worker.
“Things continued to happen with her patients — rapid response calls and ‘code blue’ calls — more often than what anyone would consider normal,” said Adam Kissell, 29, a registered nurse from Hyde Park who previously worked with Pressdee at Allegheny Valley Hospital in Harrison. Neither of them currently works there.
On Thursday, Pressdee, 40, was charged by the state Attorney General’s Office with purposely overdosing at least three patients with insulin at the Quality Life Services nursing facility in Chicora.
Her actions led to the deaths of two men and injuries to the other, according to the charges.
Pressdee is being held at the Butler County jail.
No one answered the door Thursday at Pressdee’s address, a red brick duplex decorated with hanging baskets and a colorful wreath.
Her home is in a quiet neighborhood near Sylvan Pool. The police application for a search warrant posted on the door was noticeable.
Neighbors along her street were stunned to hear she was charged with homicide and attempted murder.
Gerald Montgomery, who lives across the street, said he saw Pressdee occasionally but didn’t know the family.
Montgomery wasn’t home when authorities visited Pressdee’s house Wednesday, but his Ring doorbell camera caught the Attorney General Office’s van and other law enforcement pulling into a parking area for Sylvan Pool at 10:32 a.m. Wednesday. He said authorities searched Pressdee’s car “thoroughly.”
Montgomery said that, at 4 p.m. Wednesday, his doorbell camera captured authorities “putting evidence in the back of the vehicle” and, shortly after, it left.
“They totally dismembered her car,” he said.
He was surprised when he learned of Pressdee’s charges.
“You trust the doctors, you trust the nurse’s aides, you trust the people,” he said.
He said, generally, the neighborhood is pretty quiet and most people keep to themselves.
“It’s a great community,” Montgomery said. “It’s off the beaten path. But when you hear something like this, and then I saw on your Trib story (online) that said she even admitted to it, and I said, this is even more shocking and horrendous — just plain crazy.”
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Another man, who declined to give his name, lives several houses away. He said he noticed a large caravan of vehicles Wednesday, along with a SWAT-type van.
“I wondered what that was about,” he said. “There were at least 10 vehicles there.
“I know an older couple lives there, but they’re very quiet; he cuts the grass and sits on the porch and smokes. There’s never any noise or anything.”
Pressdee has worked as a nurse at 11 facilities in the region, among them Allegheny Valley Hospital; Platinum Ridge Center for Rehabilitation & Healing in Brackenridge; Belair Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center in Lower Burrell; and Encompass Health Rehabilitation Hospital in Indiana Township.
According to police, Pressdee was disciplined at each location for abusive behavior toward patients or staff and resigned or was fired from each facility.
Kissell recalled working with Pressdee and said, “She always seemed to have patients declining on her; patients who otherwise seemed healthy.”
The consensus among the staff was that Pressdee seemed to have a “black cloud” over her, Kissell said.
“It’s something a lot of nurses have from time to time,” he said. “I was shocked (to hear about her arrest). It all seemed too wild to be true. The fact that she was actually doing the things that you only read about in the news made me sick knowing that I had worked with her and that she put on a front that she was trying to help people.”
