Hospital Employee Injected Patient Drugs and Replaced Syringe content with Saline Solution

This is another one of those scary stories with a worker who took the injections herself instead of giving the medication to the patient, then filled the syringe with saline for the patient. The problem is the syringes were not sterilized and she had hepatitis C from an old drug habit. It appears that over 5,000 patients were potentially exposed. She is no longer employed and is in custody.

The hospital hired her even though they knew she had hepatitis and had provided counseling on how to limit her exposure to patients, which in this case didn’t work and now she faces a number of charges, especially if anyone dies from being exposed. You hate to see big brother type of monitoring grow, but sometimes it might prove beneficial, like perhaps in the operating room where she was found and did not have permission to be. So far, nine patients have tested positive. BD

DENVER, Colorado (CNN) -- A former hospital employee may have exposed hundreds, or even thousands, of surgical patients to hepatitis C after taking their fentanyl injections and replacing them with used syringes filled with saline solution, authorities say.

Kristen Diane Parker, who worked at Rose Medical Center in Denver, has admitted to secretly injecting herself in a bathroom and using unclean syringes as replacements for patients, investigators say.

She had hepatitis C, which she believes she contracted through using heroin and sharing dirty needles while she lived in New Jersey in 2008, authorities say.

Nine patients who had surgery there during that time have tested positive for hepatitis C. Investigators are looking into whether they contracted the virus from Parker.

Parker quit after she was found in an operating room where she was not allowed to be. She subsequently tested positive for fentanyl. Hospital officials then contacted the DEA.

Hospital worker may have exposed patients to hepatitis - CNN.com