Ex-Air Force nurse acquitted of killing patients

By PAUL J. WEBER

Associated Press Writer

SAN ANTONIO — A court martial found a former Air Force nurse not guilty Saturday on charges of killing three terminally ill patients with lethal dosages of painkillers.

After the ruling, Capt. Michael Fontana said he hoped his acquittal served as a lesson on making those on do-not-resucitate orders comfortable.

Fontana was cleared of three counts of murder after a weeklong court martial at Lackland Air Force Base, where he worked at the Air Force’s largest hospital until three elderly patients died on his watch last year.

Military judge Col. William Burd rendered the ruling, unconvinced by Air Force prosecutors’ claims that Fontana deliberately hastened deaths with excessive amounts of medication.

"My intention the whole time was to take care of dying patients," Fontana said after the verdict and hugging his weeping family members in the courtroom.

Fontana, 36, has been working at the Wilford Hall Medical Center library, away from patients, since being charged earlier this year. He said he wants to return to nursing.

Military prosecutors argued during the weeklong trial that Fontana chastised other nurses about the need to be more "aggressive" with terminally ill patients. Fontana said he never second-guessed the medications he gave to make his patients comfortable.

"This could be a great educational tool nationwide," Fontana said. "You have to be observing the patients to the best of your ability."

Burd also acquitted Fontana on one count of conduct unbecoming an officer for altering medical records.

Prosecutors painted Fontana as a rogue, arrogant nurse who believed he knew how to best ease the pain of patients who were waiting to die. They said he knowingly administered lethal amounts of painkillers like fentanyl and morphine.

One of the alleged victims, an 83-year-old man, died after Fontana took over for another nurse taking a lunch break and adjusted the dosage of the patient’s medication.

"(Fontana said) because I’m liberal with patients and making them comfortable, they die within two or three hours, and that’s the way it should be," prosecutor Capt. Brett Landry said during closing arguments.

Fontana has been in the Air Force since 2006 and served a tour in Iraq in 2007. He worked as an intensive care nurse at Wilford Hall, which primarily serves military personnel and retirees but provides emergency and trauma care to some civilians.

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