Son’s lawsuit: Nursing facility reckless in employing Harrison nurse accused of killing 80-year-old

The son of an 80-year-old woman authorities say was killed by a Harrison nurse at Sunnyview Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in Butler Township said the nursing facility was negligent and reckless in their hiring and handling of the nurse’s behavior, according to a lawsuit.

Marguerite A. Laskovich died Jan. 21, 2023 — 45 days after she was admitted to the facility — when Heather Pressdee, 41, administered a lethal dose of insulin, according to a lawsuit filed Friday in Allegheny County Court by Laskovich’s son, Keith R. Laskovich.

Pressdee has been charged in connection with 17 total deaths at five nursing homes in Westmoreland, Allegheny, Armstrong and Butler counties since May. She faces two counts of first-degree homicide and 17 counts of attempted homicide on accusations of overdosing patients with insulin, may of whom didn’t need any.

Pressdee worked at 11 local nursing facilities since 2018 despite a pattern of being fired and accused of patient mistreatment and being referred to the state Health Department by a hospital physician for concerns of harming patients.

The lawsuit alleges the Sunnyview nursing facility in Butler County exemplified “managerial and operational negligence, carelessness, recklessness and willful and wanton conduct” by hiring Pressdee despite her “abusive tendencies and behavior toward residents and staff” at the facilities where she previously worked.

It accuses the facility of corporate negligence, vicarious disability and wrongful death.

Attempts to contact the nursing facility and Keith Laskovich’s lawyer, Gina Campisano, late Friday were unsuccessful.

The nursing facility terminated Pressdee’s employment in May 2023, the lawsuit states.

On May 24, 2023, Pressdee was arrested and taken into custody in the deaths of two patients at Quality Life Services in Chicora, where she worked from May to January 2022.

According to the complaint, staff and administration at the Sunnyview nursing facility began to notice Pressdee’s patients die unexpectedly or under suspicious circumstances.

Staff noted she was excited to work the medication cart and “religiously” stated Sunnyview residents “just needed to die,” according to the lawsuit.

Marguerite Laskovich’s health began to decline shortly after Pressdee began treating her, the lawsuit said, such that she “appeared overly medicated and drugged.”

Two days before Marguerite Laskovich’s death, Keith Laskovich saw she appeared to have been beaten, with broken teeth and two black eyes. Pressdee said she had fallen but failed to address the injuries or transfer her to a hospital for treatment, the lawsuit states.

Though Laskovich’s initial cause of death was determined to be dementia, the state Attorney General’s Office discovered Laskovich had been killed by insulin injections.

In late September or early October, Pressdee admitted to injecting the insulin, the lawsuit states.

The lawsuit seeks compensatory and punitive damages for, among other things, pain and suffering and alleged failure to intervene.