Created by Kasper Barfoed, Netflix’s Danish Crime Series ‘Nurse‘ revolves around Pernille Kurzmann Larsen who joins Nykøbing Falster Hospital for her first job as a nurse. While she does her best to meet the demands of the hospital’s emergency department, a fellow ER nurse named Christina Aistrup Hansen takes the former under her wing.
Upon forming a professional bond with Christina, Pernille realizes that several unexplained deaths are happening in her department in her mentor’s presence. Intrigued by Pernille’s efforts to unravel the mystery behind it, we find out if she exists in real life. Well, let’s share our findings!
Is Pernille Kurzmann Larsen based on a real nurse?
Yes, Pernille Kurzmann Larsen is based on a real nurse. In fact, Pernille joined Nykøbing Falster Hospital in 2014. She used to join Christina during night shifts. A few months after his consultation, Pernille began to notice the death of several patients, who suddenly stopped breathing without any apparent cause. She also noticed Cristina’s presence among the same patients, which made her suspect her colleague’s involvement in these deaths.
“I think Christina is killing the patients. I think she’s doing it on purpose,” Pernille told another nurse named Katja, according to the original text in Kristian Corfixen’s book The Nurse: Inside Denmark’s Most Sensational Criminal Trial. Pernille also shared his concerns with his partner and physician Niels Lundén. Although she wanted to discover the truth behind the deaths, they wanted to avoid falsely accusing a colleague.
Pernille’s suspicions were heightened when she saw traces of diazepam on the side door of a patient named Viggo Holm Petersen. She came to believe that the unexplained deaths that had been occurring in the ER were caused by diazepam injections. Viggo was one of several patients who died in the ER within hours of each other while Christina was working. The breakthrough in her “secret investigation” came when Pernille found a syringe with possible traces of diazepam in the room of a patient named Maggi Margrethe Rasmussen shortly after Christina left the room.
When Pernille discovered the syringe, more deaths ensued in the ER. When Maggi’s health took a turn for the worse, Niels told Pernille it was time to call the police. Pernille told officers that three patients (Viggo, Anna Lise and Svend Aage) died within twelve hours in the emergency room and the life of a fourth (Maggi) was saved from the brink of death.
“The witness [Pernille] states that he had for some time suspected another nurse – Christina Aistrup Hansen – of abusing his position: the witness suspected that his colleague had given drugs to the patients that caused their deaths/cardiac arrests,” the officers wrote in their report after talking to Pernille , according to the book by Corfixen. According to the police report, Pernille saw Christina in Maggi’s room with two syringes larger than those normally used in the emergency room. When Cristina was tried, Pernille was the most important witness in the case. Her testimony apparently played an integral role in the nurse’s conviction.
How is Pernille Kurzmann Larsen currently?
Pernille Kurzmann Larsen still works in the emergency department at Nykøbing Falster Hospital, located in southern Denmark. Her involvement in Christina’s case affected her life severely after the latter’s arrest. She had to listen to people around her describing her as a traitor. “[…] at the hospital, your colleagues [de Pernille] from the Emergency Department expressed reluctance to work with her because they feared she might accuse them of something they had not done,” Corfixen wrote in her book.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t all. “Some colleagues even raised the idea that it could easily have been Pernille who administered the medication that founded the case,” added the author. Pernille heard that some of her colleagues were scared to walk around with a syringe in the emergency room, as they thought she would report them to the police too. Even so, Pernille continued to work at the same hospital. She ended up marrying Niels Lundén.
The couple moved to the city of Maribo, located in the municipality of Lolland. Both had a child from a previous relationship and lived together with them. Soon, the couple also had a child. Her husband Niels, however, left Nykøbing Falster Hospital as he did not accept how the hospital administration handled Christina’s case. Pernille spoke with Corfixen about the latter’s book, which became the source for the series.
“I was left in a vacuum where the only thing people have to refer to are media articles about a possible love triangle. I need to know that my story will be made available to the public. So that people at least have the opportunity to understand that I am not the cold and amateurish detective that I was presented in court”, the nurse told the author about her decision to do the interview after much deliberation.
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