David Kwiatkowski has finally told his story. The former traveling radiologic technologist (RT) who diverted drugs from multiple hospitals -- and infected dozens of patients with hepatitis C along the way -- has come clean in an article in Newsweek that reveals how shockingly easy it is to steal prescription drugs from medical facilities.
Kwiatkowski was arrested in 2012 after an outbreak of hepatitis C in New Hampshire that was linked to Exeter Hospital, where he worked as an RT in the hospital's cardiac cath lab. Other hepatitis C outbreaks occurred at other hospitals around the U.S. where Kwiatkowski worked; ultimately, more than 45 people were infected and at least one person has died.
It turned out that Kwiatkowski had been stealing fentanyl from the cardiac cath lab, and replacing used syringes with saline that was then given to patients. He had contracted hepatitis C from an accidental needle stick at one of his traveling jobs, according to the Newsweek article, and passed the disease on to patients.
He pleaded guilty to 16 federal drug charges, and in December 2013 he was sentenced to 39 years in prison. He told investigators that he had been stealing drugs since 2002.
In the Newsweek article, Kwiatkowski told his story to reporter Kurt Eichenwald, who spent six hours interviewing him at the federal prison in Hazelton, WV, where he is incarcerated. Kwiatkowski said he agreed to the interview out of remorse for what he had done, and he also wanted to shine a light on the ease with which prescription drugs can be stolen from healthcare facilities, according to the story.
The article describes Kwiatkowski's fall into addiction, spurred by painful symptoms of Crohn's disease that prompted him to self-medicate with alcohol and prescription drugs. His entry into a career as a radiologic technologist gave him access to powerful opiates that could be diverted for his personal use -- with the assistance of other medical staff he met at various hospitals, who were also diverting drugs.
The article also details the revolving door of hospitals and staffing agencies that employed Kwiatkowski: A number of them suspected him of diverting drugs, but most simply terminated his employment without reporting him to law enforcement or regulatory authorities, allowing him to move on to his next job.
Kwiatkowski said that drug control procedures varied greatly from hospital to hospital. Many facilities left narcotics out in the open, where they could be easily stolen, while others threw vials with unused medicine in the trash, where they could be retrieved. One Maryland facility, however, kept narcotics under lock and key until they were ready to be used, and at that point vials or syringes remained in the pocket of a nurse until they were administered -- a system that foiled Kwiatkowski.
The Newsweek report had particularly harsh words for the American Registry of Radiologic Technologists (ARRT), the group that is charged with managing RT credentials. ARRT was notified about Kwiatkowski by a staffing agency after Arizona Heart Hospital fired him when he was found sprawled on a bathroom floor in 2010 -- two years before he was finally arrested in New Hampshire.
But ARRT recommended that no disciplinary action be taken against him -- and the group provided no negative information about him to hospitals and staffing agencies that later contacted ARRT to check his record when he applied for new traveling jobs, the Newsweek article reported.
"Each time, the ARRT gave Kwiatkowski the all-clear, allowing him to move on to the next hospital where he could steal drugs and infect patients," the article states.
Eichenwald said that Kwiatkowski's family and friends had yet to visit him at the time the interview was conducted in late 2014, but Kwiatkowski credited his prison term with "saving his life," helping him get off drugs and alcohol. He expressed remorse for his actions.
