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Celebrity

28th Oct 2022

This is the true story behind The Good Nurse on Netflix

Ellen Fitzpatrick

Frightening.

The Good Nurse has dropped on Netflix this week and in a disturbing twist of events, it turns out the film is inspired by a true story.

Starring Jessica Chastain and Eddie Redmayne, the film tells the story of the crimes that were committed by Charles Cullen across New Jersey and Pennsylvania over a 16 year period.

Jessica’s character Amy Loughren puts a stop to her colleague’s killing spree and has him arrested for good in this chilling new film.

The film was inspired by Charles Graeber’s 2014 book The Good Nurse: A True Story of Medicine, Madness, and Murder and followers Amy, a single mum and nurse struggling with a life-threatening heart condition.

Amy finds comfort in Charlie, Eddie’s character, who is another nurse on the night shifts on the ICU ward and the two become close friends.

It is only when patients begin to mysteriously die, an investigation is launched and Charlie becomes the prime suspect, so Amy risks her own life to ensure the truth is exposed.

The real Amy Loughren was a nurse in the ICU of Somerset Hospital, New Jersey, and in 2003 she found herself being approached by two detectives who questioned her about her colleague Charles Cullen.

Charles was suspected killing patients by injecting lethal doses of insulin and heart medications into their IV bags.

Charles had been fired from nine different hospitals across New Jersey and Pennsylvania prior to this incident.

Amy then wore a wire to record her conversations with him, which he ended up confessing to the murders. Amy put her own life at risk by helping the police with their investigation.

Charles was then arrested in December 2003 and eventually pleaded guilty to murdering 29 patients and the attempted murder of six others.

Currently serving a life sentence, Charles has since admitted to killing more victims but can’t recall their names. It is now estimated that he is responsible for 400 deaths.