Hospitals and clinics in New Jersey have a responsibility to thoroughly vet job candidates before hiring them. These workers are put in positions that require them to provide standard care to vulnerable patients and it is crucial that people who could put these lives in jeopardy are kept out of these positions. However, hospital negligence has contributed to a number of unsafe or uncertified staff members being hired.
Most recently, New Jersey residents may have read about a hospital worker who was repeatedly hired in hospitals across the country, despite a troubling employment history and allegations of drug use. He was recently sentenced to 39 years in prison, but only after he put the lives of at least 46 people in danger by infecting them with hepatitis C.
The man had been stealing and using sterile syringes filled with painkillers from the hospital. After he injected himself with the painkillers, he would refill the used syringes with saline. In dozens of cases, patients were treated with these syringes that were tainted with his blood, which was positive for hepatitis C.
Although he was only recently sentenced, the man’s reckless actions started as far back as 2008 when he started replacing syringes with tainted needles. Before and after he started doing it, the medical technician was repeatedly hired at hospitals only to eventually get fired for theft or drug use. Sources say that hospital negligence and relaxed regulations regarding hiring practices for medical staff are at least partly to blame for the widespread damage this man was able to do.
When hospitals or staff members engage in unsafe or negligent practices, the lives of innocent patients are put in danger. It is important for these victims to remember that they have the right to take legal action against the parties who contributed to substandard medical care. Lawsuits and money cannot erase the damage caused by these mistakes, but they can help victims recover and may prompt sweeping changes in hospitals so that the incident is not repeated.
Source: “Hospital worker gets 39 years in N.H. hepatitis case”
