The In an Instant episode “Murder in the Maternity Ward” tells the true story of Rick Worthington. In 1991, the father of eight children walked into the maternity ward of Alta View Hospital in Utah armed with a shotgun, a handgun and sticks of dynamite. He threatened to shoot babies if he did not find the doctor, Dr. Glade Curtis, who performed a tubal ligation surgery on his wife two years earlier. Worthington claimed the doctor didn’t have his wife’s consent.
Dr. Curtis, the nurses, and the women in the maternity ward – those who were expecting and those who just gave birth to their babies – retell their experiences during the 18-hour hostage crisis on 20/20 In an Instant. One of the nurses, Karla Roth, wrestled the shotgun out of Worthington’s hand, but then he fatally shot her with the handgun. He later surrendered, was sentenced to 35 years in prison for the murder of Roth, and then committed suicide in his prison cell in 1993. 20/20 In an Instant airs Saturdays at 9pm on ABC.
