EXETER — Lawyers for Exeter Hospital are arguing that a staffing agency should pay a share in settlements compensating 188 patients who tested negative during a hepatitis C outbreak caused by a former technician feeding his drug habit.
A judge will have to decide whether to grant a request by the American Registry of Radiologic Technologists to be excluded from contributing to those settlements.
Exeter Hospital filed a lawsuit against a half dozen staffing agencies that once referred former technician, David Kwiatkowski, to hospitals for work prior to him coming to New Hampshire.
Kwiatkowski, 34, was sentenced to 39 years in prison after pleading guilty to charges that he infected patients at Exeter Hospital between April 2011 and May 2012 through drug diversion. He spread hepatitis C to unwitting hospital patients by injecting himself with the painkiller fentanyl then allowed the dirty needles to be used by patients.
Lawyers for ARRT argued earlier this month that the payouts to the 188 former patients were not based on “legally actionable” claims.
Exeter Hospital reached settlements with 33 former patients who were infected by Kwiatkowski, and another 188 who threatened legal action.
More than 3,000 former patients were tested in the wake of Kwiatkowski being arrested in 2012.
Robert Dewhirst, a lawyer for Exeter Hospital, said in an objection that AART “conveniently omits (their) role in bringing about the hepatitis C outbreak at Exeter Hospital by enabling the serial drug diverter and infector David Kwiatkowski to job-hop around hospitals throughout the country, despite AART’s actual knowledge of Kwiatkowski’s drug diverting behavior.”
Exeter Hospital and state health officials began investigating the hepatitis C outbreak in May 2012.
“AART, among others, played a significant role in enabling Kwiatkowski to serially infect hospital patients,” Dwhirst said in a court objection. “Kwiatkowski has a long and storied history as a drug diverter at other hospitals.”
A judge will have to decide whether to grant a request by the American Registry of Radiologic Technologists to be excluded from contributing to those settlements.
Exeter Hospital filed a lawsuit against a half dozen staffing agencies that once referred former technician, David Kwiatkowski, to hospitals for work prior to him coming to New Hampshire.
Kwiatkowski, 34, was sentenced to 39 years in prison after pleading guilty to charges that he infected patients at Exeter Hospital between April 2011 and May 2012 through drug diversion. He spread hepatitis C to unwitting hospital patients by injecting himself with the painkiller fentanyl then allowed the dirty needles to be used by patients.
Lawyers for ARRT argued earlier this month that the payouts to the 188 former patients were not based on “legally actionable” claims.
Exeter Hospital reached settlements with 33 former patients who were infected by Kwiatkowski, and another 188 who threatened legal action.
More than 3,000 former patients were tested in the wake of Kwiatkowski being arrested in 2012.
Robert Dewhirst, a lawyer for Exeter Hospital, said in an objection that AART “conveniently omits (their) role in bringing about the hepatitis C outbreak at Exeter Hospital by enabling the serial drug diverter and infector David Kwiatkowski to job-hop around hospitals throughout the country, despite AART’s actual knowledge of Kwiatkowski’s drug diverting behavior.”
Exeter Hospital and state health officials began investigating the hepatitis C outbreak in May 2012.
“AART, among others, played a significant role in enabling Kwiatkowski to serially infect hospital patients,” Dwhirst said in a court objection. “Kwiatkowski has a long and storied history as a drug diverter at other hospitals.”
EXETER
— Lawyers for Exeter Hospital are arguing that a staffing agency should
pay a share in settlements compensating 188 patients who tested
negative during a hepatitis C outbreak caused by a former technician
feeding his drug habit.
A judge will have to decide whether to grant a request by the American Registry of Radiologic Technologists to be excluded from contributing to those settlements.
Exeter Hospital filed a lawsuit against a half dozen staffing agencies that once referred former technician, David Kwiatkowski, to hospitals for work prior to him coming to New Hampshire.
Kwiatkowski, 34, was sentenced to 39 years in prison after pleading guilty to charges that he infected patients at Exeter Hospital between April 2011 and May 2012 through drug diversion. He spread hepatitis C to unwitting hospital patients by injecting himself with the painkiller fentanyl then allowed the dirty needles to be used by patients.
Lawyers for ARRT argued earlier this month that the payouts to the 188 former patients were not based on “legally actionable” claims.
Exeter Hospital reached settlements with 33 former patients who were infected by Kwiatkowski, and another 188 who threatened legal action.
More than 3,000 former patients were tested in the wake of Kwiatkowski being arrested in 2012.
Robert Dewhirst, a lawyer for Exeter Hospital, said in an objection that AART “conveniently omits (their) role in bringing about the hepatitis C outbreak at Exeter Hospital by enabling the serial drug diverter and infector David Kwiatkowski to job-hop around hospitals throughout the country, despite AART’s actual knowledge of Kwiatkowski’s drug diverting behavior.”
Exeter Hospital and state health officials began investigating the hepatitis C outbreak in May 2012.
“AART, among others, played a significant role in enabling Kwiatkowski to serially infect hospital patients,” Dwhirst said in a court objection. “Kwiatkowski has a long and storied history as a drug diverter at other hospitals.”
- See more at: http://www.unionleader.com/article/20160617/NEWS21/160619393#sthash.InaLN1fr.dpuf
A judge will have to decide whether to grant a request by the American Registry of Radiologic Technologists to be excluded from contributing to those settlements.
Exeter Hospital filed a lawsuit against a half dozen staffing agencies that once referred former technician, David Kwiatkowski, to hospitals for work prior to him coming to New Hampshire.
Kwiatkowski, 34, was sentenced to 39 years in prison after pleading guilty to charges that he infected patients at Exeter Hospital between April 2011 and May 2012 through drug diversion. He spread hepatitis C to unwitting hospital patients by injecting himself with the painkiller fentanyl then allowed the dirty needles to be used by patients.
Lawyers for ARRT argued earlier this month that the payouts to the 188 former patients were not based on “legally actionable” claims.
Exeter Hospital reached settlements with 33 former patients who were infected by Kwiatkowski, and another 188 who threatened legal action.
More than 3,000 former patients were tested in the wake of Kwiatkowski being arrested in 2012.
Robert Dewhirst, a lawyer for Exeter Hospital, said in an objection that AART “conveniently omits (their) role in bringing about the hepatitis C outbreak at Exeter Hospital by enabling the serial drug diverter and infector David Kwiatkowski to job-hop around hospitals throughout the country, despite AART’s actual knowledge of Kwiatkowski’s drug diverting behavior.”
Exeter Hospital and state health officials began investigating the hepatitis C outbreak in May 2012.
“AART, among others, played a significant role in enabling Kwiatkowski to serially infect hospital patients,” Dwhirst said in a court objection. “Kwiatkowski has a long and storied history as a drug diverter at other hospitals.”
- See more at: http://www.unionleader.com/article/20160617/NEWS21/160619393#sthash.InaLN1fr.dpuf
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