Episode 63: David Kwiatkowski
In May of 2012, three patients at Exeter Hospital in Exeter, New Hampshire had suddenly tested positive for hepatitis C. In the process of testing staff, a fourth patient tested positive. Investigation revealed that all four patients had routine procedures in the hospital’s cardiac catheterization lab, and all of their samples had the same genome which indicated that the infection had come from the same person.
34-year-old David Kwiatkowski, a medical technician in the cardiac cath lab, had been observed by coworkers with needle marks and abscesses in his arms that he claimed were due to him having cancer and requiring frequent injections. Given his “altered” state at work, his story was not convincing. When a syringe labeled “Fentanyl” was found in a public bathroom outside the cardiac cath lab, authorities began to look into David’s background.
He had worked as a medical technician in 18 different hospitals in 7 different states over the course of 9 years before moving to New Hampshire and beginning his job at Exeter Hospital in April of 2011. While on the job, David would steal syringes of drugs, usually fentanyl as this is commonly used in lab procedures, and then inject himself. To avoid getting caught, he would fill the contaminated syringe with saline before putting it back, where it would then be used on the patient.
David received a diagnosis of hepatitis C in 2010 and continued to divert drugs needed for patient’s pain management while doing so with the knowledge that he was exposing them to the virus. Throughout his career, David exposed 6,000 patients to hepatitis C and sickened 46, including a 94-year-old woman that passed away as a result. 32 patients were infected in New Hampshire alone, and this remains the largest hepatitis C outbreak in U.S history.
David was sentenced to 39 years in prison in 2013, and is currently serving out the remainder of his sentence in Florida. As a result of this case, New Hampshire passed legislation that set into motion a system that allows state hospitals nationwide to communicate with one another about employee disciplinary records to prevent another incident such as this one from occurring again.
Image sources:
The Boston Globe - “As risk grew, hospitals turned a blind eye”