Charles Cullen has captured the curiosity of many true-crime followers with the just lately launched film The Good Nurse, which might be streamed on Netflix. The movie follows the story of the serial killer nurse answerable for an estimated 400 affected person deaths. Although Cullen claimed the physique depend was someplace round 30-40, solely 29 might be confirmed. But attributable to his technique of killing, there might have been much more deaths that Cullen was answerable for and never conscious of. The Good Nurse additionally follows Amy Loughren, who assisted within the investigation that led to Cullen’s arrest.
The documentary Capturing the Killer Nurse was launched shortly after the premiere of The Good Nurse. Available to observe on Netflix, this documentary takes a better take a look at the real-life investigation into Charles Cullen, with interviews from the detectives who labored on the case and coworkers that Cullen was near, together with the actual Amy Loughren. As might be anticipated, there are some variations between the film and the documentary, with completely different emphases. Here we are going to discover these discrepancies and try the 2 views of Cullen and examine who he was in actual life to how he was portrayed within the drama.
Reality: The Charles Cullen Story
Capturing the Killer Nurse took a broader take a look at the investigation than the drama, which targeted extra particularly on Amy Loughren’s perspective. The documentary launched the path Cullen left behind on the different hospitals he had labored at. Suspicious deaths had been swept beneath the rug to cowl the monetary curiosity of the hospitals.
Red flags adopted Cullen all through his profession, however fairly than report him or carry out an inner investigation, the hospitals feared being sued and having their reputations ruined. So as an alternative, they fired him and gave him good or impartial suggestions for his subsequent job. The documentary touched on particular circumstances that led to investigations that ended up going nowhere attributable to a scarcity of proof.
The documentary additionally touches briefly on Cullen’s tough childhood. He significantly struggled after his mom handed away, as he thought of her his protector, which appears to be what impressed him to enter healthcare. Oddly sufficient, his need to be a protector as a nurse grew to become fairly warped and skewed. In the interview room footage included within the documentary, we hear Cullen discuss how he hated to see individuals in ache, and it might be that a part of him believed he was being merciful, however this does not maintain up when having a look on the victims. Several of them had been on the highway to restoration or within the means of being discharged when he focused them. Then there’s additionally the truth that he put insulin into IV luggage nonetheless in storage. He prompted many extra deaths that weren’t focused however random.
The documentary contains details about his prior arrests and his historical past of animal abuse, together with an occasion the place he poisons a household pet. Cullen additionally spent a while in psychiatric services after a suicide try and deal with his melancholy. Capturing the Killer Nurse additionally emphasizes how Cullen’s coworkers considered him. Amy and Donna, specifically, had been very near Cullen, and the three of them had been dubbed “The Three Musketeers.” They described Cullen as typically bizarre however pleasant, caring, and dependable. They stated he was an awesome coworker and buddy and an exquisite father to his youngsters. He even demonstrated this when Amy confided in him about her cardiomyopathy by caring for her and overlaying for her when she was having a tough time.
Drama: How Accurate Is The Good Nurse?
When in comparison with the documentary, The Good Nurse is fairly correct. However, some artistic liberties had been taken to incorporate some true particulars about Cullen and his murders in a way that did not occur in actual life. For occasion, Amy within the film is the one which discovers he had been injecting insulin into the IV luggage and even goes to the storage room to look by their provide and discover ones with holes that might’ve in any other case gone unnoticed.
While it’s true that he was doing this, the documentary would not accredit this discovery to Amy, however fairly Cullen himself admits to doing so. However, Amy was pivotal in studying the Pyxis logs and deciphering which medicines Cullen took and canceled, particularly the drug Digoxin. In the film, we see her print off the Pyxis chart, however the truth is, the detectives contacted the producer and discovered the knowledge was saved for longer than 30 days, because the hospital threat supervisor claimed. They requested the remainder of the chart. Amy did, nevertheless, print off affected person data for the detectives and obtained different vital info of their investigation.
Although we by no means see Cullen work together together with his personal youngsters within the film, we do see him work together with Amy’s youngsters. This is one thing that by no means occurred in actual life, however we consider this was one other artistic liberty taken to reveal what kind of father Cullen may need been, as was claimed by those that had been mates with him. Amy’s youngsters by no means met Cullen, however Amy’s oldest daughter did encourage her mother to assist the detectives when her mom defined that she may assist cease somebody who was hurting individuals. Her daughter’s ethical compass prompted Amy to help them regardless of the danger of shedding her job and insurance coverage, which she desperately wanted attributable to her well being situation.
Overall, between the 2 movies, we get a fairly good sense of what the investigation regarded like and the function that Amy Loughren performed. Neither analyze Cullen’s previous in depth however fairly concentrate on how the hospitals tried to cowl up what Cullen was doing to be able to defend themselves. Cullen made his manner by 9 hospitals and a nursing house, and whereas he was beneath suspicion, he was by no means stopped. Since then, the Cullen Law has been put in place in order that if a hospital worker resigns whereas beneath investigation, they have to be reported to the medical board.