Since the release of the 2022 movie The Good Nurse—starring the Academy Award-winning actors Eddie Redmayne and Jessica Chastain, many Filipinos expressed their thrill over the slow-burn movie by moving it to the top movies list of the streaming platform in the country. The film follows the true story of ICU nurse Amy Loughren and how she became instrumental in arresting her colleague and America’s most prolific serial killer, Charles Cullen.
In his sixteen years of working experience across New Jersey and Pennsylvania, Charles Cullen became responsible for the deaths of at least 400 patients by administering lethal doses of various medications into patients’ IV bags. In a not-so-distant memory, the trend of how Charles Cullen would put his patients to their demise reminded me of one particular Filipino nurse.
EERIE COMMON DENOMINATORS
Victorino Chua, the name that almost tainted the impeccable and immeasurable dedication of Filipino nurses in the UK, was convicted of 33 counts, including murder, poisoning, and grievous bodily harm. He contaminated saline bags and ampoules with insulin when he worked at Stepping Hill Hospital in Stockport, Greater Manchester, while letting his colleagues unsuspectingly carry out the deed for him. The hospital reported a series of insulin overdoses, mostly involving elderly patients. Chua’s deliberate actions nearly forced Stepping Hill Hospital to close out in 2011.
The Netflix movie The Good Nurse, which took place in 2003, eerily reminded me of Chua’s case. Cullen became known as the “Angel of Death.” Interestingly, Chua described himself as an “angel turned into an evil person” in one of his bitter confessions. Should you want to hear more about this story, a podcast titled Stories After Dark gives an in-depth retelling of Chua’s heinous crimes.
TRUE-CRIME GENRE AND ITS RESPONSIBILITY
The Good Nurse and Victorino Chua’s case ultimately remind us of how many hospitals fail to do their due diligence when hiring potential healthcare workers. Given the demands in the workforce the COVID-19 pandemic has brought, films and TV shows of the true-crime genre remind us of the irreversible consequences a failure in institutional systems can cause.
Chua received a sentence of 35 years imprisonment, and will only receive parole when he passes 80. Cullen, on the other hand, received eleven consecutive life sentences. If there is any good in The Good Nurse, it is the fact that it did well in veering away from the traditional true-crime storytelling, which is mostly filled with blood spills and gory imagery to depict a crime.
In an era where true-crime films and TV swim around the sea of producing spectacles and thrilling scenes in the name of pop culture, forgetting the importance of responsible storytelling can cause more harm than good. As general moral consensus would say, and perhaps what the true-crime genre is saying, positively do no harm.
