Radiologic technologist David Kwiatkowski has pleaded guilty on charges of infecting patients with hepatitis C by taking the anesthetic fentanyl intended for patients undergoing interventional radiology procedures and diverting it for his own use.
At an August 14 plea hearing before Chief Judge Joseph N. Laplante, Kwiatkowski pleaded guilty to all 14 counts of the indictment against him, which charged him with seven counts of tampering with a consumer product and seven counts of obtaining controlled substances by fraud, according to documents from the U.S. District Court for the District of New Hampshire.
Under the agreement reached with the prosecutor, Kwiatkowski is expected to serve between 30 and 40 years in prison. Final sentencing will take place on December 3.
Kwiatkowski was arrested in July 2012 while working at Exeter Hospital in New Hampshire, which had experienced an outbreak of hepatitis C cases among patients treated in the hospital's interventional radiology unit. Investigators later connected Kwiatkowski to the Exeter cases, and they also discovered that he had been fired from a number of other hospital jobs throughout the U.S. and was suspected of infecting patients in at least one state, Kansas.
When Kwiatkowski was arrested, he agreed to speak to investigators, according to court documents. He admitted that he had been diagnosed with hepatitis C in 2010 while working in Kansas and that he replaced syringes of fentanyl with syringes of saline while working at Exeter Hospital.
Asked whether anyone had helped him divert drugs at Exeter Hospital, Kwiatkowski replied that he acted alone.
"I'm killing a lot of people," Kwiatkowski said.
The plea agreement won't be the end of the matter, however. U.S. State Attorney John Kacavas said criminal charges may still be filed against others, depending on what they knew of Kwiatkowski's actions, according to a report by CBS Boston. A number of civil lawsuits are also still pending.
