Eleanora Schlegel was a 77-year-old white female who died on January 2, 1997, at Glendale Adventist Medical Center in Los Angeles County. She had been admitted December 30, 1996, with pneumonia and initially showed signs of improvement; she was found unexpectedly dead in her hospital bed and her death was first attributed to respiratory failure.

Her passing was later reclassified as suspicious during a wider investigation into a string of unexpected deaths at the same hospital. Those cases were linked to Efren Saldivar, a night-shift respiratory therapist who confessed to using the paralytic drug Pavulon to induce respiratory arrest in multiple patients. Schlegel’s profile — elderly and recovering or stable at the time of death — matched the pattern described in the investigation.

Her death became part of a broader criminal case that prompted scrutiny of hospital oversight and patient safety. If anyone knew Eleanora Schlegel or has information about her hospitalization at Glendale Adventist Medical Center, please share what is known.