NBCDFW-Nurse Charged With Murder in Texas
A former nurse has been arrested on a murder charge after a patient died and two others slipped into vegetative states at a Texas hospital, according to state and county records.
Tyler police arrested William George Davis, 34, in the lobby of their police department on a charge of murder. He is being held on $2 million bond, according to Smith County jail records.
Tyler police Chief Jimmy Toler said in a Wednesday news conference the murder charge against Davis relates to the death of Christopher Greenaway, a patient at the CHRISTUS Mother Frances Hospital in Tyler.
“At the beginning of the investigation, CHRISTUS approached the Smith County District Attorney’s Office and the Tyler Police Department with concerns that a nurse may have been involved in intentionally harming or causing harm to patients at one of their hospitals,” Chief Toler said.
Toler said they were told by the hospital the patients were experiencing symptoms that did not line up with their recovery and care in the hospital.
Chief Toler said it is anticipated there will be aggravated assault charges filed at a later date as their agency is looking into up to seven incidents at CHRISTUS.
The Texas Board of Nursing suspended William George Davis’ license in March. In a detention order, the board determined he entered three patients’ rooms at Louis and Peaches Owen Heart Hospital in Tyler and “performed an intervention” that either killed or critically harmed them. The hospital fired Davis in February.
The board also is investigating whether his actions harmed at least four other patients.
A message left for Davis’ attorney wasn’t immediately returned Wednesday. But a GoFundMe account started by Davis says he’s raising money in an effort to fight the state’s suspension of his license, an action that he contends was due to “misunderstandings.” The campaign on Wednesday had raised more than half of his goal of $10,000.
The suspension order doesn’t specify what Davis is alleged to have done to a patient on Aug. 4, but says “the patient immediately deteriorated from their stable condition” and died two days later of an embolism and other complications. The patient was not under Davis’ care and he didn’t mention to the patient’s assigned nurse that he intervened or document it, according to the order.