VEGAS MYTHS BUSTED: Hospital Nurses Bet on Patient Deaths, Murdered Them to Win

Posted on: September 23, 2024, 07:47h. 

Last updated on: September 23, 2024, 10:31h.

Corey Levitan Read More

Expertise: Commercial Gaming, Entertainment, Expert Insight, Las Vegas, Las Vegas Myths.

In March and April 1980, Las Vegas made international headlines for an even worse reason than usual.

Reportedly, seven nurses in the ICU at Sunrise Hospital wagered on when their patients would die. They were seen stuffing cash into an envelope, along with their best guesses scribbled on a sheet of paper.

One nurse, Supervisor Jani Adams, even tampered with life-support systems to help her friends win.

Deathbed Spread

“ANGEL OF DEATH!” screamed the New York Post, “Nurse Accused of Pulling Plug in Lethal Hospital Betting Scandal.”

“It seems like something out of fever-level fiction,” Walter Cronkite, the most trusted voice in the history of televised news, told America on the evening of April 2.

Sunrise Hospital immediately suspended all seven employees and investigated six recent ICU deaths as being potentially suspicious.

The Angel of Death was Adams, of course. The 32-year-old was arrested and indicted for murder by a Nevada grand jury that believed that she cut off oxygen to a patient named Vincent Fraser.

Of the original six cases investigated, Fraser’s was deemed the most promising to prosecute. His widow even confirmed that she’d been asked to sign a mortuary release form the day before her husband died, adding to the speculation that his death was predetermined.

One of the officers who led Adams away in handcuffs was so incensed by what he believed to be her callous attitude toward human life, he threatened her with the gas chamber.

Walter Was Wrong

Fever-level fiction is what it was. The myth originated from a simple misreading of a few situations by Barbara Farro, a Sunrise nurse new to the night shift, and by the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

After hearing Adams and the other nurses inappropriately gossip about the death of a female patient while playing cards, she mistakenly got the impression that the woman’s life-support machine had been tampered with, and that Fraser was “next on the list” to die.

The whole sick game came together in Farro’s mind when she saw cash being placed into an envelope and passed around the room.

Farro went to the police, who leaked the story to the R-J. Its “scoop” of March 13, 1980 quoted Nevada Governor Robert List as saying he “would like to think the whole thing a figment of somebody’s imagination but there appears to be a good deal of smoke and fire both.”

Adams’ case wasn’t helped by the gallows humor that she, like many whose jobs deal with life and death on the daily, developed a taste for employing to cut the unrelenting stress.

If no one but fellow hospital workers were within earshot when a patient died on her watch, Adams was known to say, “Well, I killed another one!” One nurse said she once saw Adams stand beside a bed and say, “Come on, Marian, die!”

Dead Pool

At Adams’ trial, she testified that the envelope of money was only a collection taken to send off a nurse who was leaving her job. And, with an undeniable lack of evidence to present to the contrary, even the district attorney believed her. He stated to the court that “some witnesses told us they believed betting had taken place, but the only monetary amount mentioned was a nickel.”

Murder was another freakishly unlikely scenario.

Fraser, a 51-year-old lawn sprinkler repairman, had been on death’s door since his admission to Sunrise two months earlier. According to his medical records, which were obtained and reported by the Las Vegas Sun, Fraser suffered from cirrhosis of the liver “so severe, it required two previous surgical procedures” — one of which became infected from fecal matter draining into his abdomen. This caused sepsis, kidney failure, and the shock that Fraser eventually succumbed to.

Even the doctor who signed the death certificate testified that he knew of “no clinical evidence that supports an allegation that this patient died of anything but natural causes.”

As for signing a mortuary release before death, that was a common practice in cases where a terminal patient was known to be nearing the end, especially when their next of kin, like Frazer’s widow, had no telephone or car and had to be transported by police for every hospital visit.

All’s Unwell that Ends Unwell

Judge Michael Wendell dismissed the indictment against Adams for lack of evidence. She returned to her job, where she was reportedly greeted with support by co-workers and the hospital administration.

Except that the damage had already been done. The R-J reported on the case’s dismissal, as did most other newspapers, though none dedicated their front page to the news like they did to Adams’ indictment.

And the dismissal received zero network news coverage. This new angle simply didn’t bleed enough to lead. Walter had better new stories to tell.

And, frankly, America wanted to believe that a betting scandal this immoral went down only blocks from the Las Vegas Strip. To this day, people still think it really happened, citing it as one of those “only in Vegas” things.

Look for “Vegas Myths Busted” every Monday on Casino.org. Visit VegasMythsBusted.com to read previously busted Vegas myths. Got a suggestion for a Vegas myth that needs busting? Email corey@casino.org.