MURDER TRIAL DAY 10: Alleged victim of William Davis testifies on condition after crash

TYLER, Texas (KLTV) - Testimony continued Monday in the trial of a former nurse accused of injecting air into patients’ arterial lines, killing at least four and injuring more.

For the first time, the jury heard from one of William Davis’ alleged victims who describes how her life changed after her time at the Tyler heart hospital.

“Everything is a struggle,” Pamela Henderson said.

Henderson had come to Tyler in November of 2017 for open heart surgery.

“I was quite afraid because it was going to be open heart and you know that’s a big surgery,” she said.

Though medical staff said her surgery was a difficult one, Henderson’s condition would improve. Nurses who worked with Henderson testified last week that leading up to midnight on November 29, 2017, Henderson was doing well and was sitting up in bed playing on her Ipad. But shortly after midnight, she suddenly began to crash.

“I remember waking up and I couldn’t raise my head and I kept saying how come I can’t raise my head it just felt like it weighed a ton,” Henderson said.

Henderson said she was having trouble moving different parts of her body and felt basically paralyzed. She said she went to physical therapy and had to relearn how to do many things.

“I had to start all over,” she said. “I had to learn to eat, you know. My dexterity in my hands were gone. I could not use my arms, especially my legs, I couldn’t do anything with my legs.”

Henderson says she still has issues with her vision and she either uses a walker or a wheelchair to move around. None of the issues were present before her surgery and sudden crash.

“I was just a regular, healthy person besides my heart,” she said.

Davis has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him. Judge Austin Reeve Jackson, who is presiding over this trial, says the prosecution could wrap up their case Tuesday.

3:50 p.m. - On the recording, the court heard Davis tell investigators he doesn’t think any of the CVICU nurses would harm a patient.

Defense begins the cross-examination of Det. Roberts. Roberts says Davis seemed sure of his own expertise, but would frequently dodge questions during his interview.

Next witness is called Dr. Kennith Layton, Diagnostic Radiology, Neuroradiology, Baylor Scott and White Health. Dr. Layton has served as an independent expert in this case. He has no affiliation with CHRISTUS.

Layton reviewed the CT scans of each patient in this case. The jury is seeing CT scans from alleged victims showing what Dr. Layton calls large amounts of air in the patients’ brains.

12 p.m. - Det. Roberts asks if there was general distaste among nursing staff for Dr. William Turner (heart surgeon).

“He can be very hard on nurses,” Davis says on the call of Dr. Turner.

Davis tells detective Roberts on the phone that he has a great relationship with the nurses and doctors in the hospital.

Davis says in the call he had concerns that money was the priority over patient care. Davis tells detective Roberts he went into Joseph Kalina’s room to respond to alarm going off. Data from the machine showed the alarm was not going off at that time.

Davis also brings up the discussion of air in arterial lines without being asked specifically about it by the detective. Davis tells the detective he’s not sure what the result would be if air got into an arterial line.

10:23 a.m. - A phone call between police and Davis is played for the jury. In the call, Davis brings up the arterial line without detectives asking specifically about it.

Davis tells the detective he was trying to get a job after getting terminated from CHRISTUS.

9:25 a.m. - The next witness Jeff Roberts, is a former investigator with the Tyler Police Department.

He said four investigators with Tyler PD were pulled to work this case.

Police attempted to schedule a meeting with Davis to meet with him. Roberts said they played a bit of phone tag with Davis in an attempt to interview him in-person.

The trial of a former East Texas nurse accused of killing patients during his time working at a Tyler heart hospital continued Monday.

William Davis, 37, of Hallsville, is accused of injecting air into the arterial lines of patients at a Tyler heart hospital. Davis was arrested in April 2018.

The court heard from Pamela Henderson, an alleged victim of Davis and the first alleged victim to testify.

Henderson said she lived in East Texas at the time and came to Tyler for open heart surgery.

She says she remembers waking up and she could not raise her head and felt basically paralyzed.

She went to rehab/physical therapy following her unexpected event on Nov. 30, 2017.

She said she still has issues with her vision. She can walk some with a walker, but is mostly confined with a wheelchair. She says none of these issues were present before her surgery.