“The Angel of Death”: the true story of Charles Cullen, the nurse on whom the film is inspired

October 26 Netflix premiered “The angel of Death”, the film based on the life and crimes of Charles Cullen, a nurse who killed dozens of patients in his care for more than a decade while working in various US hospitals between the late 1990s and early 2000s .

Based on journalist Charles Graeber’s book of the same name and directed by Tobias Lindholm, the film focuses on the true story of how nurse Amy Loughren (Jessica Chastain)helped stop the heinous actions of his colleague Charles Cullen (Eddie Redmayne).

What does the synopsis tell us?

Amy, a compassionate nurse and single mother with serious heart disease, reaches her physical and emotional limit due to the difficult and demanding night shifts of her job in intensive care. But she soon gets help from Charlie, a considerate and empathetic nurse who joins her unit. While sharing long nights in the hospital, the two develop a strong friendship, and for the first time in years, Amy has faith in herself and her children’s future. However, after a series of mysterious patient deaths prompts an investigation that points to Charlie as the prime suspect, Amy is forced to risk her life and the safety of her little girls to uncover the truth.

Who was Charles Cullen?

Charlie Cullen was born in New Jersey in 1960 and was one of eight children. His father died before Cullen’s first birthday and this would have been a huge blow in his life. Victim of bullying during his college days, at age 9 Cullen had his first suicide attempt. Later, while still a teenager, his mother died in a car accident where his sister was driving.

After this new traumatic experience, Cullen dropped out of school and in 1978, he enlisted in the US Army, successfully passing psychological tests. Later, his mental instability surfaced. After several suicide attempts, in March 1984, he was discharged due to psychological problems.

Three years later, in 1987, Cullen graduated from nursing school, married, and became a nurse. However, in 1993 he divorced his wife, with whom he has two daughters.

Cullen began working in various hospitals and nursing homes. He resigned from a few jobs after being investigated for allegations of misconduct, on one occasion because an elderly woman complained that he came into her room and gave her injections when he was not her assigned nurse.

He was fired from a hospital for hiding heart medication in a needle disposal container.

He bounced from different medical centers in New Jersey, and even worked for a time in Pennsylvania after getting a license to practice there.

Between 1998 and 2002, he did some agency work and had some full-time jobs. During this time, he is believed to have killed more people.

His weapon of choice was a drug called digoxin, a drug commonly used to treat people with irregular heartbeats or heart failure, but which is deadly in large doses.

As of 2003, Florian Gall was under the care of Somerset Medical Center in Somerville, New Jersey. There, Florian Gall suffered a sudden heart attack and died, despite previously showing signs of improvement. Upon investigation, it was discovered that Gall had been given a lethal dose of digoxin.

While working at this hospital, Cullen met Amy Loughrenwho would be key to ending his crimes.

The beginning of the end

Nurse Loughren formed a close bond with Cullen while they worked night shifts together at Somerset Medical Center in New Jersey in the early 2000s. He was her confidante, helping her with the care of her daughters and covering for her. when he suffered severe breathing difficulties due to his heart condition.

After several suspicious deaths at the hospital led to an investigation, police asked Loughren to help them. She provided them with evidence and ended up playing a crucial role in extracting Cullen’s confession. However, accepting that a close friend could have committed such terrible crimes took its toll on him.

Loughren, who is in better health after experimental heart surgery 18 years ago, says: “I fought the guilt of missing him [a Cullen]. I struggled with the guilt of not seeing that this friendship also had a monstrous dark side.

“And I didn’t want to see it. I wanted to believe he was a merciful killer so I could continue to care about him. And he was not a merciful killer. He was a cold blooded killer. I fought a lot for not realizing”.

“I literally risked everything to make sure he was behind bars. I went every day and every day I pushed myself no matter how sick I was. She also was a present mother and a good nurse. and now seeing her [a Jessica interpretarla]I feel like I could be proud of that character. She opened up a space for me to say, ‘I did well.’”

Tobias Lindholm, director of “The Angel of Death”, said that he could not believe the story and it was until he met with Amy that he understood how badly the system worked, the same one that allowed Cullen to always get a job after have previously been fired.

He was laid off from five nursing jobs and quit two others due to concerns about his practices. But, during a 16-year career, he always found a new job. This is believed to be in part because hospitals did not express their suspicions about him for fear of being sued.

“As a consequence of the Charles Cullen case, every time someone is reported, their records now have to be kept for seven years. The fact that that didn’t happen anymore… is amazing,” Redmayne said in statements collected by BBC Mundo.

The US health system

The US healthcare system comes under scrutiny again in the film, showing the difficulties some people have in accessing affordable healthcare.

Loughren was too sick to work, but she couldn’t qualify for health insurance until she had worked in the hospital for a year, so she had to stay on the job against medical advice.

In one scene, she is seen scrambling for enough money to pay nearly $1,000 for a heart checkup, eventually splitting it between two credit cards.

The final word on the film’s legacy should perhaps fall to Loughren, who is now a purveyor of alternative medicine.

“This platform that I have right now is really about giving victims a voice… because everyone was saying that [Cullen] he was a merciful killer and they were going to die anyway. No they did not. Many of his victims were very young. Many of his victims were about to leave the hospital and he stole their opportunity. And his families deserve that voice”.

Cullen was arrested in December 2003. He was arrested for first-degree murder and attempted murder, and the next day he shocked officers by telling them there were many more. He admitted to killing between 30 and 40 of his patients, but this number is believed to be closer to 400.

In 2006, Charles Cullen was convicted of 29 murders and received 11 life sentences. He agreed to work with investigators to identify all of his victims, if they refrained from applying the death penalty.

At this time, Charles Cullen is still in prison at the New Jersey State Prison in Trenton. The defendant had previously said that he only gave “very sick” patients the lethal drugs, so he believed he was putting an end to his pain. Speaking from prison in 2013, Charles said: “I thought people weren’t suffering anymore, so in a sense I thought I was helping. My goal here is not to justify. You know what I did there is no justification. I just think the only thing I can say is that I felt overwhelmed at the time”.