good for her, i went through it TWICE, and am still positive... never again
Posted on 07/28/2012 4:41:49 PM PDT by verum ago
The New Hampshire hospital lab technician indicted last week for infecting 31 people with Hepatitis C might have infected "tens of thousands" of patients in at least 13 hospitals, ABC News has learned.
David Kwiatkowski, a former lab technician at Exeter Hospital in New Hampshire, had allegedly been stealing the Fentanyl syringes intended for patients, injecting his own arm and then refilling those empty syringes with another liquid-like saline, according to a statement from the United States Attorney's Office in New Hampshire.
Since Kwiatkowski tested positive for Hepatitis C in June 2010, he passed it on to the hospital patients who were injected with his used, saline-filled syringes, according to the affidavit.
"If he knew that he was infected and he put those needles back on the shelf, that is the definition of evil," Dr. Richard Besser, ABC News' Chief Health and Medical Editor, told Good Morning America. "Anyone who was in those hospitals when he was working there is potentially at risk. We're talking tens of thousands of people."
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
marker
Trial, proof of action, execution.
good for her, i went through it TWICE, and am still positive... never again
traveling “nurses” are not lab technicians......
Lab techs would not have access to the fetanyl. So somethings weird about this story.
God Bless you. You are tougher than I am.
No, he was a traveling lab technician. I wonder if that system will be reevaluated after this story.
not really, i just wanted to live, now i'd rather die than go through it again...
This guy is just like the Aurora shooter. He deserves the death penalty.
There are few professions, or job types where someone could work in that many different locations for such short periods of time. Most employers wouldn’t touch someone with so many different positions in so short a time.
There must really be a shortage of people doing his category of lab technician work.
From his ‘work’ history - I’d venture a guess hospitals were catching on to the guy - then giving him the boot and a reference to the next job.
I go to a VA hospital for some things and was having some routine blood work back in April. The doctor told me that the VA was recommending that vets be checked for Hepatitis and did I mind being tested. I thought it was really odd, but didn't object and all tests came back negative.
This and some other stories of problems at VA and other hospitals make those Hepatitis tests seem more understandable.
I have a similar friend, she was a nurse at Walter Reed, got it from a needle stick, and a medical retirement from the military when she came up positive. When it started to go acute they did the chemo, Interferon, her life was hell for a year, but she’s virus free and back to her old self.
The treatments are improving, and I’ve been discussing it with my Dr. My numbers are always good, but it can’t be doing nothing, and I’m a carrier.
My friend with Hep C never had any symptoms, it was found during a routine blood test. I pray for the best for you, it was awful to watch my friend go through it.
I was thinking about a Hep C vaccine but there might be one coming within several years. I known two people with it, one had to go through chemo for it but I haven’t seen him for 6 years and don’t know if he is fully cured and a different person got it so bad that he couldn’t even drive anymore and he died two years ago. A friend’s dad had hepatitis and eventually died as well.
I know sometime when the Hep C vaccine comes out, I would like to get a year or two after it comes out and go ahead and do A & B as well.
“Lab techs would not have access to the fetanyl. So somethings weird about this story.”
Agreed. This story doesn’t make sense. This is a drug that’s counted every shift by an on-coming and off-going RN, and has to be signed for when being re-stocked by pharmacy. How the heck would a “lab tech” get access to it?
Please, can we suspend the ban on cruel and unusual punishment for this guy?
My 30-year-old son has hep C. He just had a liver biopsy last week and the doctor told him he doesn’t need the interferon/ribavirin yet since he’s only stage 1 as far as inflammation. It could be 10 years before he needs treatment and hopefully by then they’ll have something that isn’t so horrendous to go through.
i wish him well...
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