BUDAPEST, Apr 23 (Reuters Health) - The managers of the Nyiro Gyula Hospital in Budapest are suing Hungary's health minister, seeking damages of $12,000 for defamation charges.

The clinic, run by the City of Budapest, is taking Istv Mikola to court over statements he made in late February concerning a notorious euthanasia case.

In the case, a 23-year-old nurse employed by the hospital confessed to killing more than 40 elderly patients over the past two years by injecting lethal doses of the tranquilizer Seduxen (diazepam), potassium or morphine into their veins during her night shifts. Head physician Gabor Takacs reported the suspicious death of a patient to the police in mid-February. The nurse, dubbed by the media as the "Black Angel" but identified by the police only as Timea F., was arrested shortly afterwards.

The country's top healthcare official publicly blamed the hospital's management for the deaths.

"The entire hospital bears a responsibility in this matter, since it paid no attention to the deaths," Mikola said. "The rules of this profession must be respected."

According to Takacs, the department where the nurse worked lost $12,000 in revenue due to Mikola's statements.

The department was temporarily closed down in March, but reopened after an investigation by the State Public Health and Medical Officers Service found no fault with the storage and use of medications at the ward.

"The disappearance of 30 or 40 vials in a hospital with such medication traffic is not conspicuous," Takacs said. "There were no signs indicating that something was wrong," he said. Similar cases can happen in anywhere in the country, he said, since most of Hungary's hospitals do not employ enough nurses. Nurses are among the worst paid public sector employees in Hungary, making about $100 a month.

The case sparked a heated debate over the issue of euthanasia and the country's ailing healthcare system. At the same time, Mikola ordered the health authorities to check on drug storage and use in all of the country's 160 hospitals.

During her interrogation, Timea F. was able to name 19 of the patients she had helped to a quicker death. If the ongoing medical examination finds her mentally stable and court finds her guilty, she may face life in jail, according to Attila Petofi, the head of the police investigation.

From ReutersHealth