Marianne Bower, a 68-year-old woman from Freeport, Pennsylvania, passed away on September 28, 2021, while a resident at the Belair Health and Rehabilitation Center in Lower Burrell. Initially, it was believed she died of respiratory arrest after a long and courageous battle with Multiple Sclerosis. However, the circumstances surrounding her death would later come under intense scrutiny, leading to allegations of foul play and a wrongful death lawsuit filed by her family.
The lawsuit,
filed in October 2023, claimed that a nurse named Heather Pressdee was responsible for Bower's death. It was alleged that Pressdee, who was employed in a management role at the facility, administered a lethal dose of insulin to Bower, who was not diabetic. The family's attorney stated that Pressdee had allegedly confessed to giving her the insulin. The lawsuit further contended that the Belair Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center was aware of Pressdee's history of abusive behavior towards patients and staff at previous facilities but hired her nonetheless. It was also claimed that other nurses at the facility had become suspicious of the amount of time Pressdee was spending with Bower and had reported their concerns to management, but no action was taken.
At the time the lawsuit was filed, Heather Pressdee was already facing criminal charges, including two counts of homicide and one count of attempted murder, for allegedly administering lethal doses of insulin to three other patients at a different facility, Quality Life Services in Chicora, resulting in the deaths of two of them. While the lawsuit brought public attention to the allegations surrounding Marianne Bower's death, no criminal charges had been announced in her case at that time. The family's legal action sought to hold both Pressdee and the nursing home accountable for what they described as an unconscionable failure to protect a vulnerable resident.
