Amber Willard
GLENDALE -- A former hospital worker charged last week with giving
patients lethal injections at a Glendale hospital allegedly told police
he got the drug he used at another city hospital.
Efren Saldivar also allegedly told Glendale Police -- in a recently
released 1998 interview -- that although he did not lethally inject
patients at the other hospital, he did allow them to die by not
effectively performing measures like CPR.
"... By law, we have to go through the procedures -- go through the
steps. I'll do ... not the greatest CPR, not the best compressions. Or
maybe just angle it a little," Saldivar allegedly told police in March
1998.
He estimated that by not actively performing his job as a respiratory
care therapist, he caused the deaths of as many as 200 people at the
Glendale hospitals, as well as others in Burbank, Sun Valley and Arcadia,
according to police documents released by a judge late last week.
Saldivar, who lived in Tujunga with his parents and brother, is
charged with causing the deaths of six patients at Glendale Adventist
Medical Center by injecting them with drugs that kept them from
breathing. At the time of his 1998 interview, the 31-year-old man
allegedly told police he injected 40 to 50 patients. Saldivar worked at
Glendale Adventist from 1989 to 1998.
Saldivar recanted his confession weeks later in two national
television interviews, saying he was suicidal and made up the stories
about the killings.
Saldivar told investigators he got at least one of the drugs, Pavulon,
from Glendale Memorial Medical Center, where he occasionally worked from
1991 to 1994.
"... I picked up Pavulon there, but I didn't use it there," Saldivar
told police in a March 1998 interview.
Both hospitals have said their internal investigations into the deaths
showed no evidence of wrongdoing by Saldivar.
In the interview, Saldivar also asked authorities if he was "in any
way getting myself in trouble here."
An LAPD official called in by Glendale Police to perform a polygraph
test responded: "Let me answer it this way. I think you're doing yourself
a big favor, OK? ... I know a lot more than you think I do."
Such responses are not uncommon during interviews, officials said.
"The door is pretty wide open on what we can do," police spokesman
Sgt. Rick Young said.
Saldivar later acknowledged that he understood his rights, according
to police transcripts.
"Everything I said will be used against me in a court of law. I said a
lot, but I'd plead guilty anyway," Saldivar said in 1998. He was arrested
after the interview and held for two days but released because police had
no physical evidence.
Police have since exhumed 20 bodies of suspected victims. Five showed
traces of Pavulon, which was not prescribed in their medical treatment,
officials said.
Saldivar is scheduled to enter his plea next week in a Los Angeles
courtroom.
