Lillian VanZandt, an 83-year-old White woman, died at Shady Grove Adventist Hospital in Rockville, Maryland, on March 30, 2003, after a prolonged illness. Her daughters say a nurse assigned to VanZandt’s care spoke bluntly about letting their mother die and urged them toward ending life support, a remark that remained haunting to the family.

Montgomery County investigators and hospital officials later focused on ICU nurse Coleen M. Thompson. A fellow nurse reported concerns in July 2003, and prosecutors reviewed numerous deaths from the period when Thompson worked in the unit. Prosecutors said their theory was that Thompson sometimes hastened death by ignoring orders and withholding critical care rather than by direct killing. In VanZandt’s case they alleged Thompson failed to give medication needed to stimulate her heart.

Thompson pleaded guilty in March 2005 to five misdemeanor counts of second-degree abuse or neglect of a vulnerable adult and in May 2005 received a mostly suspended sentence totaling 45 days in jail, fines, and probation. Does anyone have recollections of VanZandt’s final hospitalization or information about care practices in that ICU at the time?