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Six years of work in two hospitals, 85 proven homicides. He was always the first to resuscitate a patient. He even earned the nickname “Rambo Resuscitation”. He himself worsened the patient’s condition in order to be able to resuscitate him. Whether or not he did was like a lottery. He was killing out of boredom, he was satisfied that the patient’s life was “hanging in the balance”. All his victims were patients who were deliberately harmed by a nurse and then saved. In 85 cases, unsuccessfully. Niels Högel is the greatest murderer in the criminal history of post-war Germany.
- Niels Högel was born in 1976 in Lower Saxony, Germany. In 1997 he started working in a local hospital as a nurse
- In 2001, at the clinic in Oldenburg where he worked, there was an increase in deaths and situations in which patients were at immediate risk of dying
- In six years of work, Niels Högel performed hundreds of injections without medical indications, which in many cases were the direct cause of the patient’s death
- He is currently serving a life sentence
- More similar information can be found on the TvoiLokony home page
Patients were dying during his shift. On his own, he was administering a heart medicine that was life-threatening. Then he undertook resuscitation, which he did not always succeed. Resuscitation attempts and deaths occurred more often than usual during his shift, but for a long time it did not arouse suspicions in his superiors.
Who was Niels Högel, the nurse-murderer?
Niels Högel was born on December 30, 1976 in the coastal town of Wilhelmshaven in the northwest of Germany. His father was a nurse at the same hospital where Högel later worked. His grandmother was also a nurse. Mother was a legal assistant, he had an older sister. He grew up in Wilhelmshaven and did not pose any educational problems. Subsequent investigation did not reveal that Högel had a difficult childhood.
In 1997, he completed a three-year vocational training at Sankt-Willehad Hospital in Wilhelmshaven and started working there.
Hospital conference over unexplained increase in deaths
In 1999, Högel was employed at the Clinic in Oldenburg, at the Department of Cardiac Intensive Care. For two years, nothing was suspicious of the staff. In August 2001, a meeting was held at the hospital. Doctors and nurses from the department where Högel worked tried to find the reason for the increase in resuscitation and deaths that have occurred recently. Högel was also present at the meeting. As he confessed years later, he was sure he had dropped by. Only he knew the answer to the question about the mysterious increase in deaths.
- Stockholm syndrome. Love for the executioner
After a hospital consultation, he took three weeks off work to recover. The murderer has not been exposed. Högel’s three weeks’ absence from the hospital allowed many patients to stay alive. It was later noted that only two patients had died during that time, far fewer than until recently when Högel was at work.
Eventually, the head of the ward began to suspect something. 58 percent deaths in the hospital took place on Högl’s shifts. But it just ended up being transferred to the Anesthesiology Unit. Soon, however, the head of the Department of Anaesthesiology noticed that Högel was very often present in crisis situations. In September 2002, the supervisor suggested to the nurse that he quit his job or move to the hospital’s logistics department.
A murderer with references and a new job
Ultimately, however, they said goodbye to Högl. But it was done in such a way that the nurse had no trouble finding a new job in the profession. On October 10, 2002, he received a letter of reference issued by the director, in which he assessed his work at the highest level. With such a positive opinion, the murderous nurse went to a new job.
In December 2002, Högel joined a clinic in Delmenhorst. He was also doing well privately during this time. He got married and his daughter was born in 2004.
At the beginning, in the new clinic, he was appreciated and liked by his colleagues. But while Högel was on duty, deaths from arrhythmias or a sudden drop in blood pressure increased.so some coworkers began to distance themselves from the nurse. Still, they suspected nothing. Even when four empty Gilurytmal packages were found in the ward, which no doctor prescribed and should not be there.
- She served the family chocolate. The mother-in-law died after a few hours
On June 22, 2005, Högel popped in. He was caught just as he was injecting a patient with Gilurytmal without medical indications. The clinic management discussed what to do. For organizational reasons, the decision was postponed for several days. On his last day at work, Högel murdered another patient. Years later, cases for omission and perjury were also brought against Högl’s superiors and associates.
73 percent deaths were linked to Högel’s roster
The incident with Gilurytmal was the beginning of the end of Högl. Police in Delmenhorst opened an investigation into his case. Co-workers reported their suspicions that he was responsible for numerous resuscitation and unexplained deaths at their hospital. A police investigation investigated all hospital deaths between 2003 and 2005. It has been revealed that the death toll at the clinic in Delmenhorst has doubled during Högl’s employment.
Many trials, one sentence
In December 2006, a district court sentenced Högl to five years in prison and a five-year ban on employment for attempted murder. It was a verdict only in the one-off, presumed incident involving injecting the drug, in which Högel was caught. In June 2008, after further examination of hospital cases, Högel was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison and a life ban for attempted murder.
In January 2014, the Oldenburg District Prosecutor’s Office opened another investigation into the deaths at the clinic in Delmenhorst. In September 2014, Högel was charged with three murders and two attempted murders. Högel then confessed to thirty murders. The nurse administered 90 injections on his own, 60 patients were rescued. On February 28, 2015, the court sentenced Högl to life imprisonment.
The case was still under investigation. Hundreds of bodies were exhumed, some could no longer be evidence in the case, and many of Högl’s patients were cremated. Hospital records were analyzed. In November 2016, prosecutors proved Högl 37 murders, but that was just the tip of the iceberg. In total, 332 cases of suspected murder were investigated.
In January 2018, the prosecution brought charges against Högl for the murder of 100 patients between February 7, 2000 and June 24, 2005. The deceased were between 34 and 96 years of age. On June 6, 2019, the Oldenburg Court again sentenced Högl to life imprisonment. Ultimately, he was found guilty of 85 murders. On September 11, 2020, the judgment became final. The Court of Justice dismissed all the appeals.
Over the years, Högel gave patients drugs that stopped their circulation. As he himself admitted, he enjoyed resuscitating. The prosecution ruled that he had acted out of low motives and was driven by boredom and the desire to impress others. There are suspicions that there were many more victims.
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