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"A man accused of triggering a hepatitis C outbreak at Exeter Hospital plans to plead guilty to the federal charges against him.Click here to view News 9\u2019s reportCourt paperwork shows that former medical technician David Kwiatkowski, who has hepatitis C, admitted to taking syringes of the painkiller fentanyl, injecting himself and then allowing the syringes to be used by other people.The case led to 11,000 people being recommended for testing for hepatitis C in New Hampshire and around the country. He was accused of being linked to infections in 32 patients.Kwiatkowski faces seven counts of tampering with a consumer product and seven counts of obtaining controlled substances by fraud. As part of the plea deal, Kwiatkowski will be sentenced to a minimum of 30 years in prison. Had he gone to trial, he could have faced the equivalent of a life sentence.\"I'm not surprised that the parties in this matter have reached a plea agreement,\" said legal analyst Charles Keefe. \"The defendant in this case was looking at a substantial amount of time under the federal sentencing guidelines.\"According to court, Kwiatkowski worked at a variety of health care facilities across the country from 2003-2012. In 2011, he started working at Exeter Hospital, where, according to court documents, his co-workers noticed he \"sometimes exhibited unusual behavior, including sweating, having bloodshot eyes, leaving procedures before they were completed and telling false stories.\"\"The defendant appears to have made a Mirandized confession to the act, and in those situations, it is very difficult to mount an effective defense,\" Keefe said.Prosecutors said Kwiatkowski would inject himself with fentanyl and then fill the syringe with saline to be used by someone else later.According to court documents, Kwiatkowski confessed to law enforcement that he knew he was infected with hepatitis C in 2010 and that he was acting on his own. The documents also say he claimed, \"Yeah, and I'm going to kill a lot of people out of this.\"\u201CThis is something he was doing every single week, probably while he was working at Exeter Hospital,\u201D said attorney Michael Rainboth.Attorneys for victims of the outbreak said their clients were relieved, but still struggling.\u201CWe\u2019ve heard from several clients today, and today is a good day, but it\u2019s not the end of the road,\u201D said Jason Beecher of the McGrath Law Firm. \u201CMany of them are reliving the traumatic events that they\u2019ve been going through over the last year and a half.\u201DThe plea deal indicates one victim\u2019s spouse said he is so afraid of transmitting the disease, he will not kiss his wife on the lips. Others are facing equally heartbreaking difficulties.\u201CWe heard from John Doe today who told us, \u2018I\u2019m still tired. I can\u2019t play with my grandkids. I can\u2019t go to work because my employer was concerned that I may cut myself and injure somebody,\u2019\u201D Beecher said. \u201CAnd also stated that many of his friends had left because they were scared about his diagnosis as well.\u201DAlthough civil trials are scheduled to begin in the fall of 2014, lawyers said it\u2019s hard to quantify an appropriate financial settlement for the victims, just as it is difficult to stomach the fact that one day, Kwiatkowski could be free while the victims will live the rest of their lives infected with hepatitis C.\u201CThirty, 40 years is never enough,\u201D said Daniel Corley of the McGrath Law Firm. \u201CIt\u2019s never going to bring them to where they need to be. These are people that are suffering on a daily basis. Not just the positives, but the negatives to. I mean, these are people that are not sure if they have to be tested again.\u201D"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.wmur.com/article/guilty-plea-planned-in-hepatitis-c-case-3/5183757>