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Hep C lawsuit asserts 1991 incident at Texas hospital should have increased caution

The Denver Post
August 16, 2010

Eighteen years before surgery scrub technician Kristen Parker infected 18 patients at Rose Medical Center with hepatitis C, another employee infected patients the same way at a Texas hospital later owned by one of the owners of Rose.

A lawsuit filed in Denver District Court states that Hospital Corporation of America, which partly owns Rose Medical Center, should have been more careful with the way drugs were stored and secured after its earlier lawsuit.

Parker, 27, is serving 30 years in federal prison after she injected herself with the painkiller fentanyl that was meant for surgery patients. She then filled the syringes with saline and placed them back on carts, resulting in the patients being injected with the infected needles during surgery.

The latest lawsuit, filed Aug. 3, claims anesthesiologists left the drugs in unlocked surgery rooms — in violation of hospital policy and state and federal statutes.

"Every single surgery room at Rose had controlled substances that were intended for vulnerable surgery patients lying around for drug addicts like Parker to divert, use and fill with saline," said patients' attorney Hollynd Hoskins.

Five lawsuits are pending against Rose Medical Center, and one has been settled, said Cara Harshberger, spokeswoman for the hospital.

The first case set for trial is in June before Denver District Judge Herbert Stern.

The latest suit was filed by Hoskins on behalf of a Denver mother of three who is using the initials L.K. because she does not want her medical condition made public.

For six minutes, a syringe filled with the painkiller fentanyl sat unsecured in a surgery room before L.K.'s procedure on Feb. 13, 2009. The lawsuit says that is when Parker stole the drug and left the infected needle behind.

The anesthesiologist, Dr. Herbert N. Chado, named as a defendant in the lawsuit, unknowingly injected L.K. with the contaminated needle, and months later, the woman learned that she was infected with hepatitis C.

To Read More: http://www.denverpost.com/news/frontpage/ci_15782528