EXETER, N.H., May 21 (UPI) -- A nurse says a New Hampshire hospital fired her because of her connection to a housemate who was charged with infecting patients with hepatitis C.
Kerry Descoteau has sued Exeter Hospital for wrongful termination for releasing her even though the state nursing board dismissed a complaint against her, the Portsmouth Herald reported Tuesday.
Descoteau has not been charged in the 32 confirmed cases of hepatitis C prosecutors say they have traced to David Kwiatkowski, who worked as a cardiac catheterization laboratory technician at the hospital.
Descoteau, a registered nurse, worked with Kwiatkowski in the lab. Because Kwiatkowski was a traveling technician, Descoteau had allowed him to share her residence. She evicted him in June 2012 after he was charged.
The nurse, a single mother of two, charges in her suit she has not been able to find work since the hospital fired her in March.
The termination letter asserted there was a "credible suspicion" Descoteau "may have contributed" to the hepatitis C outbreak and a criminal investigation in which she was "materially involved" was pending, the suit filed by attorney David Slawsky charges.
Slawsky claims the hospital statements are "false" and "misleading" and his client was not aware of Kwiatkowski's activities.
Prosecutors charge Kwiatkowski, who had hepatitis C, stole syringes filled with fentanyl, injected himself and then refilled the syringes with another liquid. The syringes were then used on patients.
