A traveling hospital technician accused of causing a multistate outbreak of hepatitis C last year has pleaded guilty to federal drug charges in New Hampshire under an agreement that calls for him to serve 30 to 40 years in prison.
David Kwiatkowski, 34, pleaded guilty to seven counts of tampering with a consumer product and seven counts of obtaining controlled substances by fraud, according to a plea agreement filed Aug. 12. The outbreak sickened 30 people with hepatitis C, a virus that attacks the liver. One patient died during the period.
The most recent infection occurred in last year at Exeter Hospital in New Hampshire. The travel tech stole syringes of Fentanyl, a potent pain medicine, and injected himself. Afterward, hospital employees unknowingly used the same needles that Kwiatkowski had contaminated.
"Kwiatkowski used the stolen syringes to inject himself, causing them to become tainted with his infected blood, before filling them with saline and then replacing them for use in the medical procedure," the U.S. attorney's office in Concord, N.H. said in a statement.
He was arrested last year in July. The plea agreement also provides details of his time in Michigan, where he worked before he infected people during temporary assignments in New Hampshire, Maryland, Kansas, and Pennsylvania.
One Kansas patient died, with hepatitis suspected of contributing to his death, according to federal investigators. According to court filings, Kwiatkowski began working at the Exeter Hospital in April 2010 — 10 months after he was diagnosed with hepatitis C.
- See more at:
http://healthcaretraveler.modernmedicine.c...
Posted By: Jen Fad
Wednesday, August 21st 2013 at 11:34PM
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