Legal Commentary

Hospital Lab Tech in Colorado May Have Infected 5,700 With Hepatitis

By Jeralyn

This is a gruesome story. Kristen Diane Parker, a lab/surgery tech at Rose Hospital in Denver (one of our most prominent medical centers) who was infected with Hepatitis C, stole syringes filled with the pain-killer Fentanyl from the OR, shot herself up, put saline in the used syringes and replaced them on the rack in the OR. She got fired and went to work in Colorado Springs where she did the same thing.

Rose Hospital is sending out letters to everyone who had surgery during the months she worked there to advise them they may be exposed to Hepatitis C.

Authorities say Parker admitted to changing out syringes containing a saline solution with ones filled with the painkiller Fentanyl. Parker injected herself with the drug, according to a complaint filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Denver.

An affidavit by Mary F. LaFrance, an investigator for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, says at least nine surgery patients at Rose have tested positive for hepatitis C, which is incurable. About 6,000 patients are being advised they may have been exposed and need to be tested.

The affidavit supporting the federal criminal charges against her is here (pdf). [More...]

And, get this:

Hospital officials said they knew the technician had the virus when she was hired. She began work Oct. 21, 2008. She was fired April 13.

Parker has confessed and told authorities she is a former heroin user:

In a videotaped interview Monday with police, according to the Gazette, Parker told a detective she used heroin from July to September last year. She allegedly told the investigator she thought she caught the virus from injecting herself with dirty needles.

After a co-worker reported she was stabbed by a needle protuding from Parker's pocket and that Parker had been in an OR room without reason to be there, she was given a drug test which came back positive for Fetanyl and was fired. She then went to work for the Audubon Ambulatory Surgery Center in Colorado Springs, from May 4 until Monday when she was arrested. Parker told police she did the same thing at Audobon she did at Rose. Up to 1,000 patients at Audobon may be infected.

If you had surgery at Rose, you should get a letter by Tuesday or Wednesday. There's a hotline set up which has been very busy today. As to Hepatitis C,

An estimated 3.2 million people in the United States have chronic hepatitis C virus infection. Most people don't look or feel sick.

What happens: For every 100 people who do contract the disease, 75 to 85 will develop a chronic infection. About 60 to 70 will develop chronic liver disease. About five to 20 will develop cirrhosis over a period of 20 to 30 years. Between one and five will die of liver cancer or cirrhosis.

As TChris just posted, the war on drugs encourages illicit drug use. If Parker had been able to legally get her Fetanyl or heroin, and clean needles, she wouldn't have resorted to this awful switcheroo and 6,000 ordinary citizens would not be at risk of infection with an incurable disease.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on July 03, 2009 (boomark / email).