Healthcare Worker Sentenced to Prison for Syringe Tampering and More

A former scrub technician has been sentenced to 30 years' federal imprisonment for crimes including tampering with syringes and exposing patients to blood-borne pathogens. Yesterday in Colorado, Kristen Parker was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Robert E. Blackburn to serve 360 months (30 years) in federal prison, followed by 3 years of supervised release.

In July 2009, we reported in our PMP News Insider blog that Parker, a former Rose Medical Center surgery scrub technician, was "accused of stealing fentanyl from surgery prep tables, injecting herself with the syringe containing the narcotic, filling the used syringe with saline, and putting it back on the surgical tray." Parker was infected with Hepatitis C, and 35 patients were identified as matching the genotype associated with Parker, according to her September 2009 plea agreement and statement of facts.

That plea agreement had carried a sentencing recommendation of 240 months' imprisonment, but Judge Blackburn rejected that sentence and instead sentenced her to 360 months, Jeff Dorschner told PMP News. Dorschner serves as Spokesman, Public Affairs Officer, for the U.S. Department of Justice, United States Attorney's Office, District of Colorado.

“Today’s sentence should provide victims of this crime some measure of resolution, as Kristen Parker will be spending the next 30 years of her life in federal prison," said U.S. Attorney David Gaouette in a statement issued yesterday. "This sentence is appropriate, and reflects the seriousness of Ms. Parker’s criminal conduct. The U.S. Attorney’s Office went out of its way on behalf of the victims of this case. The government required as part of the plea agreement that the defendant make a videotaped statement, discussing in detail her criminal conduct, for the benefit of the victims. This video was then shown to victims and provided publicly. The government also required that Parker sign consent to release her medical records to the victims of her crime. Today’s sentence should truly send a message that there are very serious consequences for these types of actions. I would like to thank the special agents with the FDA Office of Criminal Investigations, the Drug Enforcement Administration, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jaime Pena, and everyone with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for their hard work on this important case.”

The statement also reports that Parker was ordered to pay restitution to Rose Medical Center of Denver and the Audubon Surgery Center of Colorado Springs totaling $506,935. Lastly, Parker is to pay $1,000 to a court sponsored victims of crime fund.

In a later blog post, PMP News reported that tamper-evident packaging is not required for prescription drugs, which would include prescription drugs packaged in prefilled syringes.