Two more wrongful death lawsuits were filed Tuesday against Lower Burrell’s Belair Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center in connection with allegations that a Harrison nurse administered fatal doses of insulin to patients there.

The latest lawsuits were filed on behalf of the families of former Bel­air residents Jack Allen Rogers and Norman Paul Hendrickson.

Heather Pressdee, Belair’s former assistant director of nursing, faces a litany of criminal charges related to the deaths of Rogers, Hendrickson and 15 others at five Western Pennsylvania nursing homes. In addition to Lower Burrell’s Belair, they included unrelated facilities in West Deer, Kittanning, Chicora and Butler.

The charges against Pressdee include two counts of first-degree murder, 17 counts of attempted homicide and 19 counts of neglect of care-dependent persons. She is being held in the Butler County jail.

Julie Beckert, a media consultant for Belair parent company Guardian Healthcare, would not comment on specific cases related to Pressdee but said the company “remains disheartened and astounded that someone entrusted to care for residents and patients could behave in this manner.”

“Our deepest sympathies continue to go out to the families that have been impacted by Heather Pressdee’s actions,” Beckert said.

Beckert said the company has “policies and procedures in place designed to vet the qualifications and background of potential employees, and we take seriously our responsibility to keep our residents safe.”

She said Guardian is cooperating with officials on the investigations.

Pressdee’s attorneys, Phil DiLucente and James DePasquale, said they were not surprised by the civil court filings, given the volume of criminal cases against their client.

“Neither the criminal defense counsel nor our client has reviewed any of the complaints to date and will reserve further comment for another time,” DiLucente said.

The families of the victims either did not return calls for comment or declined to comment.

Tuesday’s civil lawsuits, filed by Pittsburgh law firm Peirce & Associates, come on the heels of two wrongful death suits filed late last year.

In October, Peirce & Associates filed a lawsuit against Belair in connection with the Sept. 28, 2021, death of Marianne Bower, a 68-year-old grandmother of seven.

In December, Russell Colwell III of West View filed a lawsuit in Allegheny County in connection with the death of his grandmother, Mary Colwell, a former swim instructor at the New Kensington YMCA.

State investigators have said Pressdee was responsible for at least five deaths at the Lower Burrell facility.

According to the latest court filings, Rogers, 79, was an Army veteran and Purple Heart recipient from Arnold who was admitted to Belair for long-term care. During an overnight shift Nov. 14, 2021, Pressdee injected Rogers with 100 units of insulin even though he was neither diabetic nor prescribed to take it, court documents said.

Pressdee gave his family a memorial tile engraved with Rogers’ name after he died.

Hendrickson, a Beaver County resident, was an 88-year-old former steelworker at AK Steel’s Ambridge Works who was admitted to Belair on Feb. 20, 2022, following a brief hospitalization for covid-19.

During an overnight shift a few days later, court documents said, Pressdee gave Hendrickson 100 units of insulin. He also was not diabetic.

Hendrickson went into acute respiratory failure and was taken to Allegheny Valley Hospital in Harrison. He remained hospitalized in critical care for several weeks and required skilled nursing care until his death in December.

Pressdee confessed she knowingly administered excessive doses of insulin to Rogers and Hendrickson, according to Robert Peirce.

At a brief court appearance last month, Pressdee seemed to indicate she wished to plead guilty.

“I want to sign and be done,” Pressdee told her lawyers.

Instead, her defense attorneys asked Butler County Common Pleas Judge Joseph Kubit for a 90-day postponement.

Tuesday’s complaints allege Belair failed to conduct an appropriate background check on Pressdee, which Peirce said created a dangerous environment for residents there.

Both suits claim Belair hired Pressdee in April 2021 after she had been fired or forced to resign from six other facilities in less than three years.

Those facilities were Encompass Health Rehabilitation Hospital of Harmarville in Indiana Township, Allegheny Valley Hospital in Harrison, Platinum Ridge Center for Rehabilitation & Healing in Brackenridge, Orchards of Saxonburg in Butler, UPMC Passavant hospital in McCandless and Concordia at Rebecca Residence in West Deer.

The complaints also allege the state Department of Health, which oversees the state’s skilled nursing homes, cited Belair in August 2021 for failing to assess and document changes in multiple residents’ blood sugar levels, failing to notify physicians of changes in residents’ conditions, and failing to follow physicians’ orders.

During the state’s investigation, Pressdee admitted to failing to alert a physician when a resident’s blood sugar was well beyond normal levels, according to court papers.

The complaints accuse Belair of failing to appropriately investigate the issues and keeping Pressdee on as assistant director of nursing.

In addition, administrators at Belair had been informed of suspicions by Pressdee’s co-workers that her direct-care residents were deteriorating unexpectedly, according to Peirce.

“To allow Pressdee’s behavior with residents to go unchecked, despite multiple concerns from staff, is unconscionable,” Peirce said.

“Unbelievably, after a brief suspension, Guardian and Belair allowed her to continue to work at the facility and cause the deaths of at least five families’ loved ones,” Peirce added. “No one who trusts a facility with their loved one’s care should ever have to experience what these families are going through.”

Peirce said it was a “shocking failure” on the part of Belair to disregard Pressdee’s background.

“Especially with so many red flags,” he said. “Our firm is continuing its investigation into the conduct of Pressdee and all of the facilities who inexplicably employed her.”

Peirce said he expects more lawsuits to be filed.

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