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Hepatitis C Scare Rocks Westchester Via Colorado

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Jul 16, 2009 6:01 am US/Eastern

Hepatitis C Scare Rocks Westchester Via Colorado

Virus That Causes Dangerous Liver Disease May Have Been Passed Along To As Many As 2,800 Patients Of Local Hospital

NEW YORK (CBS) ―

Click to enlarge 1 of 2: Hepatitis C (file)
AP
Click to enlarge 2 of 2: In this photo released by the Denver County Sheriff's Department, Kristen Diane Parker, 26, is shown. Parker is accused of injecting herself with painkillers meant for patients, then filling the used syringes with saline solution.
Denver County Sheriff/AP

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A major health scare in Colorado has created shockwaves here in New York.

Surgical technician Kristen Parker was arrested for allegedly swapping needles tainted with hepatitis C for ones filled with a painkiller at two Colorado hospitals.

She told police before moving to Colorado she worked at Northern Westchester Hospital in Mount Kisco between Oct. 8, 2007 and Feb. 28, 2008. Later, she began work at a hospital in Colorado, where she is alleged to have self-injected narcotic pain medications using syringes that she later filled and replaced, and possibly exposing patients to infection. Ten Colorado patients have been identified who may have contracted hepatitis C from Parker.

The New York State Health Department is working closely with the hospital to ensure that any patients who underwent surgery at the hospital while Parker worked there are contacted and offered free testing. The health department is in the process of notifying 2,800 patients by mail.

So far there are no known cases at the hospital. Additional information has emerged, however, suggesting that Parker may have engaged in similar conduct while employed at Northern Westchester, although it is not known whether she was infected with hepatitis C at that time.

Hepatitis C is a liver disease caused by the hepatitis C virus and is spread by contact with the blood of an infected person. It is estimated that 1.6 percent of the U.S. population has been infected with hepatitis C.

If think you may have come into contact with Parker, please contact us.