Kriti Mehrotra
As a documentary movie that lives up to its title from every conceivable angle, Netflix’s ‘Capturing the Killer Nurse’ can only be described as equal parts baffling, gripping, as well as haunting. After all, it delves deep into the case of Charles Cullen, a critical care medical personnel who possibly murdered hundreds of patients (the confirmed number is 29) over his sixteen-year career. One of the worst parts, though, is that the administrators of nearly every hospital he’d been employed at reportedly did suspect him at some point, but they all tried to sweep it under the rug. Amongst them was Mary Lund — so let’s find out more about her now, shall we?
Who is Mary Lund?
Mary Lund is a woman of power, prestige, and procedure by all accounts, especially considering the way she has been undeniably successful in her professional endeavors as an executive. In fact, back when accusations of Somerset Medical Center’s nurse Charles being a serial killer first came to light for good in 2003, she was serving as the facility’s Director of Risk Management. However, despite her later efforts to keep matters hush, Mary was the one to open a dialogue with the then-director of New Jersey Poison Control concerning the frequent, unnatural deaths in the hospital. She also reported four such passings to the Department of Health.
According to Charles Graeber’s 2013 book ‘The Good Nurse,’ during the internal inquiries, Mary essentially interrogated Charles upon noticing the discrepancies in his Pyxis records for medicines withdrawn. Yet, the book further details she not only failed to disclose the same once the authorities got involved around three months later but also proved to be a hindrance at every step of the way. Whether it be not providing them with the results of their investigation, outrightly lying about Pyxis storing only thirty days’ worth of data, or not offering vital Cerner patient reports, she did it all.
As if that’s not enough, since Mary was the officials’ point of contact, the higher-ups at the center even managed to convince the Major Crimes Unit to have her sit in for every staff interview. No medical personnel was hence questioned without her presence looming in the room, which detective Danny Baldwin believes influenced their responses. “Each time his detectives asked a question, it seemed like the nurse would reflexively glance over at Lund before speaking,” Charles’ book carefully explains. They were thus fortunate she had to leave for a little while when it was Amy Loughren’s turn.
Where is Mary Lund Now?
Despite her own actions and the ensuing public claims implying she deliberately tried to cover up Charles’ murders, the truth is Mary Lund was genuinely affected by this entire situation as well. Her job as a risk manager was to ensure the hospital didn’t get in the line of fire for its association with a (then-suspected) serial killer, yet she couldn’t really shut down her moral compass either, per the aforecited source text. “Danny [gradually] noticed that something fundamental had changed in Mary Lund. It was as if the woman was suffering a slow-motion nervous breakdown.”
The book continues, “Lund was getting it from both sides, the bottleneck between the hospital and the murder investigation. She was the risk manager in a situation of unprecedented consequence in lives and jobs and dollars. Mary had been losing weight steadily since the [official] investigation started, and it didn’t seem to Danny like the intentional kind…[She] had lost maybe twenty pounds, but she was trying to hide it, shrinking inside her pantsuit, nervous as a hare.”
Coming to the aftermath of it all, Mary was reportedly wholeheartedly praised by the CEO & President of Somerset Medical Center (now Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Somerset) for her handling of the matter. The former nurse turned Director was thus eventually promoted as well, and it appears as if she now serves as the Vice President of Quality and Risk Services at the same establishment in Somerville, New Jersey. From what we can tell, Mary prefers to keep well away from the limelight these days, so we unfortunately do not know much about her recent experiences in any capacity.
Read More: Where is Nurse Pat Medellin Now?
