An attorney representing 169 people, including 11 former Exeter patients who have tested positive for the Hepatitis C virus, said “although most of his clients tested negative for hepatitis C, they still had to endure a gut-wrenching period of time fearing they were exposed to the illness but having no idea whether they had contracted it.”

As we reported in earlier blogs, medical technician David Kwiatkowski was arrested in connection with the illegal use of narcotics and the spread of Hepatitis C at Exeter Hospital in New Hampshire.  Kwiatkowski is accused of injecting himself with drugs like Fentanyl from a syringe, refilling the same syringe with saline and then using the dirty syringe tainted with his blood on patients.

The New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services has linked 32 cases of Hepatitis C to Exeter Hospital.   A complaint was filed in Rockingham County Superior Court against the Exeter Hospital in June and has since added the Nebraska-based Triage Staffing Inc., a health care company that hired and placed David Kwiatkowski at Exeter.

The arrest of Kwiatkowski led to a nationwide investigation of hospitals where Kwiatkowski also worked and allegedly was caught more than once abusing medication intended for patients.  One of those instances occurred here in Western Pennsylvania at UPMC Presby in 2008.

A lawsuit was filed against UPMC on September 3 for medical negligence in relation to the infection of a patient at Hays Medical Center in Kansas.

For more information on a possible medical negligence case in relation to Hepatitis C exposure, contact us today at 800-777-4081.