Hospital technician will plead guilty in hepatitis C outbreak
Print Edition
A traveling hospital technician accused of infecting dozens of patients with hepatitis C through tainted needles told US investigators he had been stealing drugs for more than a decade and was “killing a lot of people,” according to a plea agreement that would send him to prison for 30 to 40 years.
David Kwiatkowski, who has been jailed since his arrest in July 2012, is accused of stealing painkiller syringes from Exeter Hospital’s cardiac catheterization lab and replacing them with saline tainted with his blood. He has agreed to plead guilty to the 14 federal drug theft and tampering charges he faced in exchange for a lighter sentence. Had he been convicted at trial, he could have been sentenced to up to 98 years behind bars.
Thirty-two patients in New Hampshire have been diagnosed with the strain of hepatitis C carried by Kwiatkowski, who worked at 18 hospitals in seven states before being hired in New Hampshire in 2011. There have been seven cases in Maryland, six in Kansas and one in Pennsylvania. One of the Kansas patients has died, and hepatitis C, a blood-borne viral infection that can cause liver disease and chronic health issues, played a “contributing role,” the plea agreement said.
Linda Ficken, of Andover, Kansas, is among those Kwiatkowski is accused of infecting. Ficken, 71, said on Monday she’s glad he pleaded guilty but wishes the sentence was longer.
“It should’ve been life, since he gave us potentially a death sentence,” Ficken said.
More than a year after Kwiatkowski’s arrest, Ficken said, she is still angry at him.
The plea agreement includes details of an interview Kwiatkowski gave investigators in New Hampshire after his arrest in which he said he knew he’d been diagnosed in 2010 but continued to “swap out” syringes of the painkiller fentanyl. He said he had been stealing drugs since 2002 and estimated he had swapped syringes at least 50 times in New Hampshire, at least 30 times in Georgia and more than 20 times in Kansas.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
