Did 'Serial Infector' Expose Patients in 6 States?
David Kwiatkowski has been arrested for allegedly infecting at least 30 people with hepatitis C as he traveled across the country working as a medical lab technician.
Hospitals in eight states are coming up with a list of patients who may have come into contact with Kwiatkowski to discover if there are any more victims.
Authorities say that Kwiatkowski is a drug addict who himself is infected with hepatitis C. It's believed that Kwiatkowski shot himself up with the powerful painkiller fentanyl and left the used needles in the lab. These needles were then used on unsuspecting patients, infecting them with the blood-borne liver-damaging disease, reports CNN.
The 33-year-old Kwiatkowski worked as a traveling medical technician on a temporary basis for hospitals in Arizona, Georgia, Kansas, Maryland, Michigan, New York, and Pennsylvania over the past five years, reports CNN. It isn't clear exactly when Kwiatkowski contracted hepatitis C or how long he has allegedly been stealing drugs, but he first tested positive for the disease in June 2010.
Now Kwiatkowski faces charges for obtaining controlled substances by fraud and tampering with a consumer product. It's surprising that Kwiatkowski was not charged with assault or reckless endangerment for spreading the disease to hospital patients.
An argument can be made that if you face assault charges for beating someone with a baseball bat, then you should face assault charges for infecting someone with a hepatitis-laden needle. At the least, if David Kwiatkowski was aware that he had hepatitis C, he should face endangerment charges for using the needles on himself and then leaving the infected needles around for use on others.
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