Neonatal Nurse Sentenced to Life for Injecting Babies with Deadly Chemicals

In what prosecutors called one of Argentina’s most chilling medical crimes, a neonatal nurse has been sentenced to life in prison after a jury found her guilty of murdering five newborns and attempting to kill eight others.

Brenda Cecilia Agüero, 29, was convicted in June 2025 after a six-month trial in Córdoba, Argentina. Jurors deliberated for just 10 hours before finding her guilty on five counts of aggravated murder and eight counts of attempted murder. She will serve her life sentence at Bouwer Penitentiary and won’t be eligible for parole for 35 years.

“She was playing God,” lead prosecutor Daniela Morales Leanza said in court. “She decided who lived and who died.”

The disturbing case began in March 2022, when a healthy newborn at Hospital Materno Neonatal Ramón Carrillo suddenly went into cardiac arrest. Within weeks, several more previously stable infants experienced unexplained respiratory failure or cardiac distress.

Doctors noticed a pattern — every critical episode occurred during Agüero’s shifts.

By June 6–7, 2022, the situation reached a breaking point. Two babies died, and two others nearly did, all within one night. Families and staff later described finding unusual needle marks and, in one case, a “prick in the back,” raising suspicions about improper injections.

Prosecutors argued Agüero injected infants with lethal doses of potassium and insulin.

Autopsies revealed dangerously high potassium levels consistent with deliberate injection. Experts testified that insulin levels in some babies were so extreme they surpassed even those seen in adults with advanced pancreatic cancer — levels that could only result from intentional administration.

“She wanted recognition,” a court-appointed psychiatrist testified. “She derived satisfaction from others’ suffering.”

Parents who lost their newborns described their devastation in heart-wrenching testimony. One mother said she saw Agüero take her baby and turn away, only for her child to stop breathing minutes later.

Eight babies survived the attacks but not without consequences. One infant now suffers irreversible neurological damage linked to insulin overdose. Another developed severe scoliosis after a potassium injection in the back.

“I trusted them,” one father said outside court. “I trusted the hospital. And they gave my baby to a murderer.”

Despite the verdict, Agüero maintains her innocence.

“I am not the monster they created in the media,” she said during her final statement in court. “I understand the pain of the mothers, but I am not the serial killer they want everyone to believe.”

The trial also exposed systemic failures at the hospital. Five hospital administrators and provincial health officials were convicted on charges of concealment and negligence.

Former hospital director Liliana Asís and administrative sub-secretary Alejandro Escudero Salama were each sentenced to more than five years behind bars. Three others received suspended sentences but remain free pending appeals.

The Córdoba community remains shaken by the revelations. Local media have called it “Argentina’s most disturbing medical scandal in decades.”

Parents of the victims continue to demand reforms in hospital safety protocols. “We need laws that protect our children,” one grieving mother said. “This can never happen again.”