Córdoba nurse given life sentence for murder of five newborn babies

The nurse accused of killing five babies and attempting to murder eight others at a hospital in Córdoba has been found guilty and sentenced to life in prison.

Brenda Cecilia Agüero, 29, was sentenced Wednesday to life imprisonment for having provoked the death of five babies at Córdoba’s Hospital Materno Neonatal Ramón Carrillo between March and June 2022.

Prosecutors said Agüero injected potassium and insulin into the newborns, taking doses from emergency medical carts without inventory control, prosecutors said.

Under Argentine law, Agüero will not be eligible for parole until she has served at least 35 years.

A court clerk read out the sentencing in footage broadcast on local media on Wednesday. The life sentence was handed down after a popular jury spent 10 hours deliberating on the case, before finding her guilty by a broad majority verdict.

Aguero, who was arrested in 2022, denied the charges. She had earlier told the court “they have no evidence” and accused the media of portraying her as a “serial killer.”

The babies, all born healthy, died under initially unexplained circumstances at the neonatal ward of the maternity and children’s hospital in Córdoba Province, 370 miles (600 km) northwest of Buenos Aires. 

Eight others survived due to swift medical intervention.

The trial also brought charges against 10 other defendants including former provincial officials and health professionals for cover-up and dereliction of duty.

Former Córdoba provincial health minister Diego Cardozo was acquitted although without obtaining a majority vote from the jury.

Several other defendants were also sentenced: Liliana Asís (64 months); Alejandro Escudero Salama (64 months); Marta Gómez (five years), Luisa Moralez, (a suspended five-year sentence) and Pablo Carvajal (a suspended four-year sentence).

Doctor María Alejandra Luján, nurse Alicia Ariza and former Legal Affairs secretary Alejandro Gauto were acquitted.

Deliberations

After lengthy deliberations, the jury concluded that Agüero was guilty of offences involving the five newborn babies that died and eight that survived, making 13 in total.

The healthcare professional injected potassium and insulin into the newborns between March and June 2022, taking doses off “carros de paro” emergency units and without inventory control, according to the prosecution.

Agüero is “the criminally responsible author of the crime of homicide qualified by repeated insidious procedure in five cases ... and repeated attempted homicide qualified by insidious procedure in eight cases ... informing her of the punishment of life imprisonment,” said the court clerk as she read out the ruling.

In Argentina’s Criminal Code, the aggravating factor of “insidious” is applied in cases in which the perpetrator resorts to deceit to commit damage.

The jury found her responsible for repeated homicide qualified by insidious procedure against five dead babies and attempted homicide against eight more who survived the attacks.

Throughout the trial, which lasted for six months at the Tribunales II court of Córdoba, Agüero always pleaded her innocence.

The facts

Between March 18 and June 6, 2022 five babies died and 13 others suffered various injuries, giving rise to a court investigation in the light of the number of newborns expiring in that short period. 

What at first seemed a case of presumed negligence had other derivations when the provincial Health Ministry investigating the tragedies detected an alarming pattern.

According to the autopsies and other preliminary studies there were signs of deliberate action since unsuitable substances were found in the bodies of the victims.

The provincial courts subsequently ordered an exhaustive investigation into the neonatal ward after which Agüero appeared as the main but not the only culprit, since doctors, other nurses and administrative staff were also involved.

Among the accused was Cardozo, Córdoba’s former health minister. He was singled out for presumed irregularities in his supervision of the hospital. 

Cardozo resigned after the revelations about the neonatal hospital came to light.

Besides Cardozo (unanimously), the court decided to acquit doctor María Luján, the former deputy director of the hospital Claudia Ringelheim, the former head of nursing Alicia Ariza and the former head of Legal Affairs at the Health Ministry Alejandro Gauto.

All the babies falling victim to these serial attacks were recognised as victims of “institutional violence.”

– TIMES/NA/AF