By EMS1 Staff
SICILY, Italy — An Italian EMS provider was arrested for allegedly killing patients in order to collect payments from a funeral home in what Italian media have called “the ambulances of death” scandal.
BBC reported that the man was accused of injecting air into at least three terminally ill patients’ veins while transporting them home, causing them to die of an embolism.
Police said they were informed that the EMS provider would then suggest a Sicilian mafia-connected funeral home to the families of the patients, and would receive a commission of over $300 as a result.
Officials said the operation could have been going on since as early as 2012, and many other deaths could have occurred. The case is currently under investigation.