Washington Nurse Apparently Used Injection Needles In Patients Infecting Them With Hepatitis C

2024 Author: Steven Freeman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 08:15

A Washington state emergency room nurse is accused of stealing narcotics and infecting two hospital patients with hepatitis C by using the same needles she used to inject herself.

Cora Weberg, 31, who has since been released from Pierce County Jail, was arrested Friday morning on suspicion of two second-degree assault charges, the Puyallup Police Department posted on its Facebook page..

She has not been formally charged and her mother, Eunice, clarified on Friday to the media at a press conference that her daughter "would not harm a fly."

Weberg's lawyer Bryan Hershman said she denies the allegations, reports The News-Tribune.

The arrest follows an April 30 alert by officials at Puyallup MultiCare Good Samaritan Hospital, who held a press conference to notify that 2,600 patients who may have interacted with the nurse should be tested. Although they did not reveal his name at the time, they said she was "shocked" to learn that she suffered from the disease and admitted to investigators that she had "diverted" injectable narcotics intended for patient use.

"The nurse's actions violated our organization's values," Chris Bredeson, the hospital's chief operations officer, told reporters. "We sincerely apologize to the two infected patients and those who need to be tested."

Hospital officials said the investigation began a month ago, but did not conduct a public alert until they were able to confirm the suspected relationship between the nurse and the emergency room patients.

Most of those who were urged to have the tests represent the number of patients who went through the hospital emergency room while the nurse worked in that unit from August 4, 2017 to March 23 of this year, officials reported..

Weberg “intentionally contaminated a medicine or other substance with his own blood; he then administered the drug or other substance intravenously; Cora Weberg knew or should have reasonably known that her blood probably contained one or more pathogens; and, in fact, Cora Weberg's blood contained and transmitted the hepatitis C virus,”according to a probable cause report obtained by People magazine.

"This is a terrible allegation," Hershman, his defense attorney, told the publication. "I hope we all take a step back and take a deep breath, and really see what the evidence says. To date I have not seen what evidence they have that proves that she intentionally infected someone.”

She also said that Weberg did not use a needle in patients that she would have used to inject herself.

Weberg said she was leaving the country for a long-planned trip to Guam when she was arrested by the Puyallup police on the US-Canada border.

Arresting and imprisoning her without any evidence or reason is deplorable, her mother, Eunice Weberg, said Friday at the press conference.

"She doesn't think she has it," said Eunice, also a registered nurse, of the allegations that her daughter has hepatitis C. "It's the last thing that would have occurred to her, that she might have something like that."

"I would tell her if I had something contagious. She would do the same to me, "he assured. "No drug is injected. She is not a sex worker. You are in a monogamous relationship. She is intelligent, she is compassionate. It has a heart of gold. It wouldn't hurt a fly. I raised her. It looks a lot like me. The truth is told that it hurts."

Weberg has resigned from his position at Good Samaritan Hospital since then and is not practicing anywhere else, reports KIRO television station.

Translated by Carmen Orozco

This article originally appeared on People.com