A nurse in the state of Pennsylvania, United States, earlier charged with killing two patients by administering insulin overdoses, is slapped with more legal action, media reports said.

Heather Pressdee has already confessed to attempting to harm 19 people in different rehabilitation centres where she worked, reported NDTV.

The 41-year-old nurse has been accused of injecting more than approved insulin doses for these patients since 2020, irrespective of their diabetic status, leading to the tragic deaths of 17 of those patients.

Attorney General Michelle Henry has registered new charges against Pressdee, including two counts of first-degree murder, 17 counts of attempted murder, and 19 counts of neglect of care-dependent individuals, all linked to the 19 patients she is accused of mistreating. The victims are aged between 43 and 104, the report said.

The judge emphasised that it was hard to understand how a nurse “trusted to care for her patients” could choose to harm her patients deliberately and systematically.

In May, she was charged for mistreating three patients, two of whom died, which takes the total number of patients she is accused of mistreating to 22.

She is facing various charges depending on the available evidence. In instances where there is solid physical proof connecting her to the cause of death, she is accused of first-degree murder.

For cases where the victims survived or where the exact cause of death couldn't be determined, she is charged with attempted murder.

Pressdee has chosen not to undergo a preliminary hearing and is currently held in custody at Butler County Prison in Pennsylvania without the possibility of bail.