A hospital patient has been arrested for allegedly shutting off a neighbour’s ‘noisy’ oxygen machine

CNN
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German authorities say a patient in hospital has been arrested after she twice turned off another patient’s oxygen machines because they were too disruptive.

The public prosecutor’s office in the southwestern German city of Mannheim obtained an arrest warrant for the 72-year-old woman, and she appeared before the examining magistrate and investigative judge at the Mannheim District Court on Wednesday.

She was subsequently admitted to a “correctional facility,” police headquarters and the Mannheim Public Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement.

The statement said the woman had turned off the main switch to the oxygen machine before 8:00 p.m. Tuesday, “after she was disturbed by the noise she was making.”

“Although the hospital staff informed the suspect that supplying oxygen was a vital procedure, they turned off the machine again around 9:00 pm,” she said.

The 79-year-old woman had to be resuscitated and is still receiving intensive medical care.

Oxygen equipment is used to ensure that enough oxygen gets to a patient’s cells and can take various forms, including a nasal cannula, face mask, or tracheotomy tube, according to the Cleveland Clinic website.