A 40-year-old German palliative care specialist, known as “Doctor Death,” has gone on trial for murdering 15 patients with lethal injections. The doctor, identified as Johannes M. by German media, allegedly administered a deadly cocktail of sedatives and muscle relaxants to victims aged between 25 and 94 without their knowledge or consent. The crimes are said to have taken place between September 2021 and July 2024 while the doctor was working in Berlin.
Investigators fear that the 15 confirmed cases may be just the tip of the iceberg, with 96 additional cases still being investigated for possible links to the accused doctor. One of these cases involves the death of the doctor’s mother-in-law, who mysteriously died the same weekend the doctor and his wife visited her in Poland in early 2024. The doctor had taken out several insurance policies in his mother-in-law’s name around that time.
The trial has drawn attention to a disturbing trend in Germany, where several healthcare professionals have been accused of harming patients. Recently, a 27-year-old nurse was given a life sentence for murdering two patients by administering unprescribed drugs. Another nurse went on trial in Aachen accused of injecting 26 patients with large doses of sedatives or painkillers, resulting in nine deaths. German police are also investigating another doctor suspected of killing several mainly elderly patients.
