Sacred Heart Hospital, in Allentown, Pennsylvania, was a short-lived workplace for Charles Cullen in June 2002. His quick transition from Saint Luke’s Hospital, his new relationship with fellow nurse Catherine Westerfer, and his dismissal after rumors reached the unit make Sacred Heart a revealing link in his repeated movement between hospitals.

A Rapid Transition

On June 8, three days after Saint Luke’s Hospital security escorted Cullen to his car, he arrived early for a night shift at Sacred Heart. He could truthfully list his Saint Luke’s employment as continuing through June, and that hospital supplied neutral references. Cullen entered orientation and was set to start immediately; Sacred Heart had not been contacted by the Saint Luke’s administrators who were making calls to colleagues at other hospitals.

The move placed Cullen in another cardiac care unit only a short drive from his previous workplace. He sensed he would like Sacred Heart and quickly felt at ease with his new coworkers. The speed of the transfer mattered: there was little interval between one hospital’s decision to remove him and another’s decision to put him to work.

Cullen and Catherine Westerfer

Cullen’s strongest early connection at Sacred Heart was with Catherine Westerfer, a young mother and fellow new hire who was single and working nights. They began dating before he had been there a week. As in other relationships described in the book, Cullen attached himself quickly.

Two weeks later, after the hospital told him not to return for shifts, Catherine felt sorry for her new boyfriend. The abrupt beginning and ending of his Sacred Heart employment seemed romantic to her, and the relationship continued after the job did: a few months later, Cullen loaded his Escort and moved into her rented house in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

Rumors and Dismissal

Cullen’s termination notice gave the reason as interpersonal conflicts. He took this to mean that a senior nurse had heard rumors about him, but the account identifies a more specific route by which suspicion reached the unit. A Sacred Heart nurse had previously worked at Easton Hospital, where the suspicious digoxin death of Ottomar Schramm still lingered in memory. She had heard the stories and passed them on to her Sacred Heart coworkers.

The reaction became collective. Cullen’s coworkers petitioned the administration and threatened to quit en masse if he was not fired. Cullen did not know the details of what had circulated; he understood only that he needed to move farther afield. Sacred Heart’s action therefore ended his employment there, while the rumors associated with his earlier hospital work followed him into a new workplace.

Place in Cullen’s Hospital-to-Hospital Movement

Sacred Heart was neither a long-term post nor a clean start in the sense Cullen hoped for. His hiring showed how neutral references could make a rapid transfer possible, while the Easton rumors demonstrate how information could also travel informally between nursing staff. In this instance, coworkers’ shared concern reached the administration and prompted a decisive response.

After his dismissal, Cullen concluded that he would have to go farther away, across the state line. Sacred Heart thus marks a brief but consequential interruption in his employment: he lost the position, but his relationship with Catherine Westerfer endured, and his departure set up another move rather than ending his progression through hospital jobs.