Blog: Upmc In The News

Kwiatkowski to serve nearly four decades in prison

Dec 3, 2013

The infamous David Kwiatkowski, a former UPMC Presbyterian employee and traveling medical technician who serially infected at least 45 people with Hepatitis C, was sentenced on Monday to 39 years in prison. In August, the 34-year-old Kwiatkowski pleaded guilty to sixteen federal charges. Some of those charges include tampering with a consumer product and obtaining controlled substances through fraud. Prosecutors for the case claimed that while Kwiatkowski worked in at least eight different states as...

UPMC argues it can’t pay taxes because it has no employees

Oct 23, 2013

According to the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), in their first of many hearings that will determine whether or not they keep their tax-exempt status, they do not officially have any employees. Lawyers for UPMC have explained to Common Pleas Judge R. Stanton Wettick that for the purposes of Pittsburgh's annual wage tax, all of UPMC's thirty-seven subsidiaries each file separate forms. It was thus explained that because every employee works for a separate...

Kwiatkowski pleads guilty after exposing thouands to Hepatitis C

Aug 14, 2013

“It was all me. And I’m going to kill a lot of people out of this…I’m killing a lot of people.” Those were the unsettling words of the traveling hospital technician, David Kwiatkowski, who has been accused of and pled guilty to infecting what may end up being hundreds, or even thousands, of people with Hepatitis C before all is said and done. For over a decade, Kwiatkowski stole drugs to feed his painkiller addiction...

Another lawsuit filed against UPMC Presby and others for Hepatitis C

Oct 1, 2012

By Dallas Hartman of Dallas W. Hartman P.C. posted in Hepatitis C on Monday, October 1, 2012. Another lawsuit for medical negligence was filed in the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County today on behalf of a couple from Kansas. The lawsuit alleges that Thomas Walters and his wife Clara allege that Thomas contracted Hepatitis C while he was a patient at Hays Medical Center in Kansas at the time David Kwiatkowski worked there...

UPMC, Staffing Firms Named in Hepatitis C Lawsuit

Sep 10, 2012

According to Health Imaging Magazine’s website, UPMC Presbyterian Hospital in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania was named in a lawsuit involving the infection of several patients with the hepatitis C virus. The article, titled “UPMC, staffing firms named in hepatitis C lawsuit,” indicates that a Kansas woman was infected with Hepatitis C while having a 2010 medical procedure at the Hays Medical Center in Hays, Kansas. At the time of the procedure, radiologic technologist David Kwiatkowski, who has...

Hays Medical Center Patient files case against UPMC and two staffing agencies

Sep 10, 2012

David Kwiatkowski, traveling medical technician, worked at UPMC Presbyterian from March to May 2008. He was caught by other employees stealing syringes containing Fentanyl and replacing the Fentanyl with saline in the dirty syringes. Three syringes containing Fentanyl were found on him and a morphine syringe was found in his locker. Kwaitkowski tested positive for Hepatitis C and now patients who were seen by him are starting to report that they have contracted the disease...

Kansas Couple File Hepatitis C lawsuit Against UPMC and others

Sep 4, 2012

By Dallas Hartman of Dallas W. Hartman P.C. posted in Hepatitis C on Tuesday, September 4, 2012. A report today in the Sacramento Bee indicates that a "Kansas couple file hepatitis C suit against UPMC." The plaintiff, Linda Ficken of Kansas is claiming that UPMC Presbyterian hospital was negligent in its handling of David Kwiatkowski, a hospital technician accused of narcotics use and infecting multiple hospital patients with hepatitis C in New Hampshire. David Kwiatkowski...

Kansas woman files Hepatitis C lawsuit against Pittsburgh hospital, alleges negligence

Sep 4, 2012

According the therepublic.com, the website of the Columbus, Indiana newspaper “The Republic,” Ms. Linda Ficken is filing a lawsuit against UPMC Presbyterian Hospital in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The Kansas woman believes that the actions of Mr. David Kwiatkowski, a Radiological Technician employed by UPMC in 2008, have caused her to become infected with the hepatitis C virus. “Linda Ficken said in the lawsuit, which was filed in Pittsburgh, that the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center was...

UPMC sends hepatitis letters to 2,000 patients

Aug 14, 2012

By Dallas Hartman of Dallas W. Hartman P.C. posted in Hepatitis C on Tuesday, August 14, 2012. UPMC sent letters to 2,000 patients according to boston.com this morning urging them to get tested for Hepatitis C. The hospital sent the letters in response to actions taken by former employee, David Kwiatkowski. Kwiatkowski was arrested in New Hampshire last month after it was discovered that he had infected 31 patients with Hepatitis C. It has now been reported that...

Hepatitis C Outbreak: Arrest Of Medical Technician David Kwiatkowski Shows Flaws In System

Aug 14, 2012

By Dallas Hartman of Dallas W. Hartman P.C. posted in Hepatitis C on Tuesday, August 14, 2012. According to Huffington Post article posted on August 14, 2102, Radiology technician David Kwiatkowski was a few weeks into a temporary job at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center-Presbyterian in 2008 when a co-worker accused him of lifting a syringe containing an addictive painkiller from an operating room and sticking it down his pants." The article, titled "Hepatitis...