Hepatitis C-Spreading Medical Employee Worked in 8 States
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Hepatitis outbreak in New Hampshire strikes fear in 7 other states
By Joe Sterling, Elizabeth Cohen and William Hudson, CNN
updated 2:29 PM EDT, Thu July 26, 2012
(CNN) — Hospitals in at least eight states want to know how many hundreds or thousands of their patients have come in contact with a lab technician accused of spreading hepatitis C.
The man, David Kwiatkowski, has the disease, which can pass through contact with contaminated blood, most often via shared needles. Authorities say the Michigan native injected himself with painkillers meant for patients when he worked at Exeter Hospital in New Hampshire and left the syringes for reuse.
He was arrested this month in connection with spreading the disease at Exeter and has been charged with obtaining controlled substances by fraud and tampering with a consumer product, according to an affidavit filed in federal court. He is suspected of stealing fentanyl, a powerful analgesic that is substantially more potent than morphine, the affidavit said.
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2 Comments
FFS. I hope justice is actually served in this case. This is totally unacceptable.
This is totally bizarre! I am a nurse, and the part that says he left the syringes for reuse makes me question the validity of the whole story. Syringes are individually packaged, so what nurse would come along and use an already opened syringe? So if true and he reused these syringes, It would be a completely intentional act on this man’s part, which then makes him crazy! This whole story is crazy!