Many questions from relatives after nurse Assen’s confession: ‘What did my husband die from?’ Yesterday, 20:13 in Binnenland The confession of the nurse that he took the life of "about twenty" terminated patients prematurely shocked the widow.

“It’s as if the time factor no longer exists,” says one of the relatives of the possible victims of the nurse at the Wilhelmina Hospital in Assen. Today it was announced that he claimed to have prematurely ended the lives of “about twenty” patients.

That confession comes hard to the widow, who wishes to remain anonymous. For the past three years she thought her husband had died of corona, but she now questions that.

For the past two days she has been waiting continuously for a message from the Public Prosecution Service. Now she has an answer: the suspect admits that he has ended the lives of about twenty patients. A message she never expected: “It’s all so bizarre. I didn’t see this bizarre turn coming at all.”

Three years after her husband’s death, she had finally picked up the thread again: “I felt like I was becoming part of life again.” Until the family detective told her on April 19 that her husband is involved in the suspect’s case.

Unreal

“When she told me, I thought: can you say it again, because I don’t understand exactly what you’re saying. It was so unreal. I didn’t know what to do at all. What do you do in a situation like that? don’t know anyone who has experienced this,” says the bereaved emotionally.

She feels like she has to start all over again. “When my husband died, I thought: I’m in a horror movie. But then I knew the script. Now you have no idea what to do.”

Victim lawyer Sébas Diekstra represents four families of possible victims of the nurse. He says that the announcement that the death of their loved one is under criminal investigation has turned their lives “completely upside down”. “They have so many questions at the moment and the uncertainty about how their loved one died is enormous.”

Cause of death uncertain

Since the conversation with the family detective, the widow also has many questions. Suddenly her husband’s cause of death has become uncertain: “For three years I thought he died of corona. Now I think: what did he die of? I have no idea.”

Her husband spent more than a week in the hospital in April 2020. She has no memories of the suspect: “It was a kind of science fiction event. Thermometers on your head, face masks, everything was new. The hospital staff were blue aprons and face masks to me.”

She doesn’t know how to proceed now. “I sleep a little at night because I’m so tired. I’m empty.” Diekstra hopes for a good investigation and “that the desired clarity will come very soon.”