CHILLICOTHE, Mo. (AP) — Relatives are outraged after the Missouri Supreme Court decided wrongful death litigation can’t go forward against a northwest Missouri hospital.

 

The judges cited statute-of-limitations issues in their ruling this month. At issue are civil cases that claim a nurse at Hedrick Medical Center intentionally killed several patients in 2002 by giving overdoses of medications, and that hospital administrators concealed her actions.

The Chillicothe hospital argued the lawsuits should be rejected. It says the state’s three-year statute of limitations on wrongful death cases expired before the lawsuits were filed.

The plaintiffs countered that because of the alleged concealment, the statute of limitations did not begin to run until later. Nobody has been criminally charged in the deaths.