Hospital patient, 73, who ‘killed’ her roommate by switching off her ventilator because the sound annoyed her was ‘high on medication’ and meant no harm, her son says after her arrest in Germany

• Hatun C. is alleged to have twice switched off a 79-year-old woman’s ventilator 
• She was arrested on manslaughter charges on Nov. 30 after staff reported her 
• Her son Aydin C. insisted to German media his mother acted out of ‘desperation’ 

A 73-year-old woman who allegedly switched off a hospital roommate’s ventilator because she was annoyed by the sound it made was ‘high on medication’ and ‘meant no harm’, her son told German authorities.

Hatun C., 73, was arrested on November 30

Accused Hatun C., 73, a patient in the Covid ward of Mannheim’s Diako Hospital, is reported to have twice turned off the oxygen machine used by 79-year-old Hilal K. in the adjacent bed because the noise was keeping her awake.

After noticing her oxygen machine had been turned off for a second time, medics revived Hilal, but she later died from complications due to oxygen starvation.

Hatun C. was jailed on suspicion of attempted manslaughter following the incident on November 30, but her son Aydin C., 41, told German media his mother acted out of ‘desperation’ after being kept awake for so long by the sound of the ventilator.

Image shows the Diako general hospital in the German city of Mannheim where Hatun C. turned off her roommate’s ventilator

‘My mother couldn’t close her eyes there because the oxygen device of her bed neighbour made such a loud noise, like a tractor.

‘She was exhausted and high on medication. But she didn’t want to harm the woman. It was an act of desperation,’ Aydin insisted to German media.

He added: ‘My mother worked as a toilet attendant for over 30 years, raised five children, and was never at fault.

‘Now she is in prison as an old, frail woman with a serious heart condition. I’m afraid she’ll die there. She had no idea what she was doing.’

Aydin said his mother contracted Covid while on holiday in her native Turkey and had been admitted to Mannheim hospital on her return in a ‘miserable mental state’. 

Hatun C. was arrested on November 30 for attempted manslaughter after medics reported her actions to authorities.

Hatun C. was arrested on manslaughter charges after she allegedly turned off her ward mate’s oxygen machine twice (A ventilator is pictured during an instruction of doctors at the Universitaetsklinikum Eppendorf in Hamburg, on March 25, 2020) 

Victim Hilal had been hospitalised for atrial fibrillation – a heart condition that causes an irregular and often abnormally fast heart rate.

But she had then contracted Covid while in the hospital and had to be moved to the Covid wing and placed on a ventilator.

Staff at the hospital had reportedly given Hatun a stern warning after she turned off her ward mate’s oxygen for the first time.

But her son excused her subsequent attempt, claiming there was no way his mother could’ve understood what the nurse was saying as she only spoke Turkish.

He said: ‘My mother can neither read nor write, she only understands Turkish, how should she have understood this announcement by the German nurse?

‘In addition, she has no idea about machines. Otherwise, she would never have done something like this.’

The Mannheim skyline is pictured in Germany. The woman was jailed on suspicion of attempted manslaughter following the incident at a hospital on Tuesday

He added: ‘My mother should have been moved to another room, and at the very least, we should have been informed immediately, then it would never have come to this.’

But Aydin went on to apologise to the victim’s family, saying: ‘I would like to apologise for all the suffering my mother brought to the 79-year-old’s family.

‘My mother herself was a victim of these intolerable circumstances in the clinic.

‘She deeply regrets everything and asks for forgiveness.’

The deceased’s daughter – 48-year-old Sadet O. – has no time for Aydin’s excuses for his mother.

She told German media: ‘That woman probably killed my mother. I can’t forgive her for that.’

Coroners are conducting post-mortem examinations on Hilal’s brain to determine whether Hatun’s actions did in fact cause her death.

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