A woman from Utah says that a nurse gave her hepatitis C – and now she is suing the Davis County Hospital where she was neat

She went to an emergency room in Davis County in October 2011 with chest pain, fearing to have pneumonia.

After being admitted, Karen Samulski received a mixture of analgesics, sedatives and anti-nausea drugs.

What Samulski did not know then was that his nurse, Elet Neilson, had probably injected part of the drug before giving the rest to his patient.

Four years would pass before Samulski receives a letter from Davis Hospital and the medical center says that the nurse may have exposed him to hepatitis C And in December 2015, Samulski tested positive for the same genotype 2b strain as Neilson.

Samulski followed daily treatments for the infection. his fingers numb and his body tired.

Samulski sued Thursday Davis Hospital, alleging that the hospital had not done enough to protect patients from an employee who was stealing drugs.

The trial, filed in second The trial court alleges that the hospital officials failed to guard against theft, did not investigate the drug theft Neilson in a timely manner and did not properly supervise the nurse. The hospital also failed to properly notify Samulski that she had been exposed to the infection, according to the lawsuit, which could spread it to others.

Samulski's lawyer, G. Eric Nielson, said Friday that he believed the hospital staff It is likely that the nurse was stealing drugs, but never has reported.

"The chances that the hospital will not receive warning signs when a nurse adopts this type of behavior are very small," he said. says that they believe that Neilson was injecting with doses of painkillers before injecting a patient with the remaining amount into a syringe. In the case of Samulski, the Neilson Nursing Chart was modified several times with notes that drug quantities were recorded on the patient's wrong card, according to the trial.

A spokesman for the hospital did not immediately comment

Samulski claims an unpaid amount for pecuniary damages, including punitive damages.

Neilson, also known as Elet Hamblin, faces federal charges relating to the hepatitis C epidemic. She was charged last year with more than five years of A dozen accusations of tampering with a consumer product and fraudulently obtaining a controlled substance. A three-day trial is scheduled for September.

Health officials estimate that Neilson could have exposed up to 7,200 patients to the genotype 2b hepatitis C strain. Of these patients, approximately 4,800 were treated at McKay-Dee Hospital in Ogden – where Neilson worked from June 2013 to November 2014 – and 2,369 at Davis Hospital and Medical Center in Layton, where Neilson worked between 2012 and 2014.

Neilson admitted to taking medication from her employer while she was working in both hospitals, according to the records of the Division of Professional and Occupational Licensing. Utah. She relinquished her nurse's license in November 2015, a month after the health authorities began offering free tests to the thousands of patients who had been in contact with her in hospitals and had received certain medications.

to sue hospitals and Neilson for the outbreak. The lawyers for the firm Feller and Wendt said in 2016 that they had 160 clients – seven of whom had tested positive for hepatitis C – who wanted to sue.