Amy Loughren

{{Short description|American nurse who helped stop a serial killer}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Amy Loughren

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| nationality = American

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| occupation = Nurse

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| known_for = assisting in the arrest and prosecution of serial murderer Charlie Cullen.

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Amy Loughren is an American reiki master and former registered nurse who is known for assisting in the arrest and prosecution of serial murderer Charlie Cullen.

Before his apprehension, Cullen and Loughren were friends who both worked the night shift in the intensive care unit at Somerset Medical Center in Somerville, New Jersey. Loughren was a single mother of two children and hiding her cardiomyopathy from her employers, with some help from Cullen, in whom she confided.{{cite web |last1=Lutkin |first1=Aimee |title=Yes, ‘The Good Nurse’ Is a Real Person, and Her Name Is Amy Loughren |url=https://www.elle.com/culture/movies-tv/a41783248/where-is-the-good-nurse-amy-loughren-now/ |website=Elle |date=October 27, 2022 |access-date=30 October 2022 |archive-date=22 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230822205531/https://www.elle.com/culture/movies-tv/a41783248/where-is-the-good-nurse-amy-loughren-now/ |url-status=live }}

In 2003, Loughren was approached by detectives who suspected Cullen of poisoning hospital patients.{{cite news |last1=Alexander |first1=Ella |title=‘How I caught America’s most prolific serial killer’ |url=https://www.glamourmagazine.co.uk/article/amy-loughren-the-good-nurse-interview |access-date=1 November 2022 |work=Glamour |date=October 19, 2022 |archive-date=22 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230822205548/https://www.glamourmagazine.co.uk/article/amy-loughren-the-good-nurse-interview |url-status=live }} The patient who triggered law enforcement interest was Florian Gall. As a patient at Somerset Medical, Gall had been improving, then he suddenly died of a massive heart attack. An autopsy showed that he had been administered digoxin. It was not on his prescription list. In small doses, digoxin can improve heart function, but the amount Gall had received was lethal.{{cite web |last1=Miller |first1=Korin |title=Where Is Amy Loughren From ‘The Good Nurse’ Now? All About Her Life After Charles Cullen And Cardiomyopathy |url=https://www.womenshealthmag.com/life/a41791162/amy-loughren-now/ |website=Women's Health |access-date=30 October 2022 |archive-date=22 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230822205639/https://www.womenshealthmag.com/life/a41791162/amy-loughren-now/ |url-status=live }} After consulting with her 11-year-old daughter, Loughren agreed to assist law enforcement.

Independent of the police investigation, Loughren noticed that Cullen's medical charting was irregular. It was at points muddled and hasty, and there were frequent misspellings. The hospital's tracking system also showed Loughren that Cullen spent unusual amounts of time on the files of other nurses' patients.{{cite web |last1=Desta |first1=Yohana |title=The Wild True Story of The Good Nurse |url=https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2022/10/the-good-nurse-true-story-fact-v-fiction |website=Vanity Fair |access-date=30 October 2022 |archive-date=22 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230822205546/https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2022/10/the-good-nurse-true-story-fact-v-fiction |url-status=live }}

As part of the investigation into Cullen, Loughren met with him at a diner, wearing a wire. Because she had just had a pacemaker installed, police did not want her to wear the wire, but she insisted. “The truth is I didn’t know how this would affect my heart, but I knew I needed to go in there and get that confession,” she said in an interview with Vanity Fair. During Loughren's meeting with Cullen in the diner, he did not overtly admit to the murders, but he said that he would "go down fighting." The evidence from the meeting allowed police to then arrest Cullen. After he was arrested, Loughren encouraged him to make a full confession, which then supported his convictions for 29 murders.

Loughren struggled with the fact that her friend was a serial murderer and with her role in apprehending him: "And he wasn't a mercy killer. He was a cold-blooded murderer. And for me to not have seen that, I really did struggle."