Lawrence Berndsen was a Cincinnati-area patient who was repeatedly poisoned with rat poison at Drake Memorial Hospital beginning around April 20, 1986. He survived the initial assaults but was transferred from Drake to a nursing home, where accounts place his death on April 23, 1986. At the time there was no public awareness of a serial poisoner at Drake; Berndsen’s deterioration did not immediately trigger a criminal investigation.

Donald Harvey later confessed to administering rat poison to Berndsen. Prosecutors treated the available evidence cautiously: in 1988 Harvey was charged with the attempted murder of Lawrence Berndsen, even though later victim lists commonly include Berndsen among those Harvey poisoned who subsequently died. No other suspect has been identified in the attack.

Does anyone have information about Berndsen’s time at Drake Memorial or his transfer to the nursing facility in April 1986?