A biomedical scientist stole bacteria from the hospital where she worked in order to end her life by giving herself septicaemia, it emerged today.
Jennifer Bainbridge removed the bacteria - found in MRSA and E coli germs - from North Tyneside general hospital, a health regulator panel heard last week.
The 28-year-old said she planned to use the germs to kill herself when she "hit rock bottom" after suffering months of depression.
"I was basically going to give myself septicaemia," she told the Newcastle Evening Chronicle.
"I just took what was available in the lab, but I made sure they were organisms which were not going to put anyone else at risk."
At the last minute, she changed her mind and told her managers what she had done. She was suspended from her job last July and dismissed last month.
"Even thinking about it all now makes me upset," she said, telling the paper that she now had a new job and did not want to work in the NHS again.
She was taken off the health professions council register for 18 months after the chairman of the hearing described her actions as "a matter for grave concern".
Colin Allies said a suspension was "necessary in the public interest and in the interest of the registrant herself".
A spokeswoman for Bainbridge's former employers, the Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation trust, said the trust had been aware of her history of depression.
The spokesman said the trust had taken the scientist off weekend and on call shifts to help her cope.
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