N.H. hospital records 33rd hepatitis case

New Hampshire officials said Wednesday another patient has hepatitis C after treatment in an Exeter Hospital lab, bringing the total to 33. The New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Public Health Services announced additional results in the testing of patients treated at the hospital's Cardiac Catheritization Lab between Oct. 1, 2010, and May 25 this year. State officials confirmed the case of a patient who underwent a procedure in the CCL. The procedure was prior to the first day of work for a former employee suspected of drug diversion in the case. However, the suspect did begin working at Exeter Hospital prior to the patient's discharge. The former hospital technician who is alleged to have caused the outbreak, David Kwiatkowski, 33, of Exeter, had limited access at the hospital. He is accused of stealing the painkiller fentanyl, using syringes and then replacing the dirty syringes to be used on patients. "We will continue to thoroughly investigate the circumstances surrounding this infection," Dr. Sharon Alroy-Preis, the state epidemiologist, said. "Part of that will include determining if the former healthcare worker might have infected this patient during the time they were both at the hospital. To rule out that any other staff was involved we have recommended testing of certain Exeter Hospital employees. At this point in time we are not recommending any further testing of patients beyond those that were already identified as having been treated in the cath lab, the OR or the ICU." Also Wednesday, the New Hampshire Union Leader reported attorneys for Exeter Hospital were setting up meetings with at least one lawyer representing clients in the hepatitis C outbreak. The report said it is not known whether the hospital was looking to settle some of the the lawsuits by former patients before trial.